The Morning After What?
by Casper1990
Summary: Ever wonder how Jackie and Hyde fall apart so easily in Winter and Don't Lie To Me? This story is my version of what led to their demise, and of what could have happened had they taken different paths in their lives. *Finally updated Nov. 2011*
1. Stripped

**The Morning After… what?**

Chapter 1 – Stripped.

**A/N: **I hope you all enjoyed the fun one-shot because I am back with a new series which promises to have enough angst to make you buy your own 'Casper1990' voodoo doll and perform some payback similar to that in my one-shot. This plot may remind some of you of the film 'The Family Man' but honestly, that is really just a coincidence. I really hope you like this because I have loved writing it so far. I have checked all of my references to ensure they can be applied to the timeframe so don't ask if something was around bacjk then.

Happy reading!

P.S. – I was listening to 'Better Off' by Hinder and… wow! It is the ultimate Hyde/Jackie song. It's not the best song in the world but listen to it anyway and think about Season 8 while you do.

**Warning: **Language.

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POINT PLACE

FORMAN HOUSE

HYDE'S ROOM

_6:59:57_

_6:59:58_

_6:59:59_

_7:00:00_

"_Good morning everyone. This is Jeff Lynn coming at you live from WLTQ on this gloomy Monday morning. I'm here with-"_

A swift slap on top of the clock radio cut off the DJ's voice and reminded Steven Hyde that, like every other stiff in America, he had to go to work today.

As he did every morning, Hyde stuffed the radio into his pile of laundry and rolled back over in bed, throwing an arm around his still-sleeping girlfriend. But today, something was different.

Instead of being greeted with the vanilla scented hair which normally smothering his face when he woke up, Hyde found his nose buried in a mess of stale, smoky hair. And when he opened his eyes to see why things had suddenly changed, Hyde was shocked to find that either his girlfriend had chopped off her luscious locks in favour of a boyish blonde haircut, or he had seriously screwed up last night.

Hyde, in a frazzle, quickly unwrapped himself from this woman and tried to get dressed and out of the room without making a sound. Before leaving, Hyde slowly lifted his head and stole a quick glance at the woman in his bed.

_Yup, definitely not Jackie._ he thought.

"Fuck." he muttered.

Hyde quietly opened the door and crept out, closing it softly behind him. He could already feel the beginnings of a hangover hit him and he almost welcomed it after admitting to himself that he had cheated on Jackie again, for he would rather take a mind splitting headache over a tornado of guilt any day. Unfortunately for Hyde though, he was feeling both.

Hyde stood still at the door for a moment with his eyes closed, silently hoping that nobody was currently sitting around, watching TV or engaging in a circle without him. However, when Hyde opened his eyes and turned around, he felt his heart stop.

"What the…"

There was no basement.

Or at least, there wasn't the basement that had been there yesterday. Hyde wandered around the room at a daze and was left speechless at the sight of a pool table, a mini-bar and a small area by the door where a sewing machine had been set up. Hyde leaned limply against the wall and he felt like he was about to throw up.

"Kitty!" Red hollered from upstairs. Hyde was startled and walked up the first few stairs so that he could be sure he had definitely just heard Red's voice. "Wake up Steven already! I want my damn breakfast."

Relieved, Hyde let out a breath he didn't know he was holding, and he bounded up the rest of the stairs and into the kitchen where thankfully, everything was exactly the same. Except, Kitty was a bit thinner had apparently cut her hair and Red was looking a lot more frail and grey. For the second time in as many minutes, Hyde had nothing to say and he stood shell-shocked at the apparent time lapse that had occurred since the night before. Kitty, who had been busy scooping a few slices of bacon onto a plate, turned around and gasped at the sight of Hyde.

"Steven, you scared me half to death!" Kitty told him loudly. She shook her head and walked over to the table where she placed the food down in front of Red. She turned back to Hyde. "Now, come on over and sit yourself down while I fix you some breakfast." Kitty said after regaining her natural motherly tone.

Hyde walked wearily over to the table and sat down in his regular seat, unaware that he was currently gawking at Red, who let his irritation show by slamming his newspaper down on the table and turning to face Hyde.

"Are you stoned?" he asked seriously.

Hyde blinked. "No, I just… everything downstairs seems so different." Red rolled his eyes.

"For God's sake Steven. It's been 3 stinking years since we redid the basement. Now, I'm as unhappy as you about the _sewing machine,_" Red grimaced and earned himself a glare from his wife, "but no-one has used it in years so just let your old stomping ground be forgotten and let me enjoy the only bit of retirement I have that doesn't include going line dancing with Kitty. Now, if you would **finally** move out and stop mooching off of us, then maybe you would get over it."

This speechless thing was becoming a regular habit of Hyde's this morning and he really wanted to cut it out this second. Red had never suggested that Hyde was a freeloader or anything so he figured that this was obviously just some crazy-ass dream and he would wake up any minute.

But, if this was a dream, then why was he so hungry? And why did his upper lip itch so much?

Hyde decided to take care of both problems right now and dug into his breakfast which Kitty had put down before him, and he began scratching at his upper lip while he ate. However, when he felt something furry up there, Hyde swallowed nervously and asked,

"Do I have a moustache?"

Red looked up. "No, a moustache is a little bit of hair below your nose. You just have a dead rat on your face." And Red went back to reading his morning paper while he ate.

Kitty was quick to defend Hyde. "Now Red, you stop teasing him. Steven, it does not look like a dead rat. It's just…" Kitty had run out of words so she decided to shift the focus off of her embarrassing predicament. "Steven, why don't you just shave it off?" she asked with a hopeful smile.

_I can't handle this_ Hyde thought and he shut his eyes tightly and willed himself to wake up. But instead all he got was a suspicious and a concerned look from the two people who had practically raised him. Even if this was just a dream, or a nightmare as the case seemed to be, Hyde wanted to get out of the room as soon as possible.

"I gotta go to work." Hyde bolted out of the kitchen and leaned against the pillar in the driveway to catch his breath. This was so wrong. Hyde had went through enough shit in his life to know the 'what's what' of fucked-up nightmares. But this was a completely new experience. He had to think. From what he had gathered, he hadn't been able to wake up yet, so maybe somebody knocked him out when he was coming home from work? It was a possibility. Except it wasn't a possibility considering that muggers barely even existed in Point Place. So Hyde was sticking with the theory that this was nothing more than a really bad dream and to prove his theory, he pinched himself in the arm and prayed that it would break his sleep. But when it didn't, Hyde began to get scared. There was a woman in his bed who wasn't Jackie, the basement had apparently been completely redecorated 3 years ago, Red had told him that none of his friends came around anymore, and from the reflection of himself he saw in the glass door; Red had been correct in labelling the mess on his face as a dead rat. Dream or not, it had to go immediately. Then he could figure out what exactly he had gotten himself into.

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EL CAMINO

Showered and clean shaven, Steven Hyde ticked off many drivers as he sped through the streets of Point Place in search of anybody who could fill him in on what kind of alternate reality he had snored himself into. First stop: Grooves.

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10 MINUTES LATER

GROOVES

Hyde complained a lot; that was just the way he was. But if managing a store which had quadrupled in size since the last time he saw it was a consequence of some dream universe, then there would be no complaints coming from him.

As soon as he had driven into the parking lot, Hyde was struck by the face that Grooves now **had** a parking lot. But besides that, he couldn't get over the sheer size of the place. Where before the store name was painted onto a wall, it was now made of fibre glass and was painted with a sleep coat of black which made the store look incredible vintage. The door had also been remodelled into the shape of an electric guitar which opened up so customers could go in and out. After Hyde had gotten over the oddly designed door, he was left gobsmacked as he stared at the two floor shop which had more records stocked than all of Atco Records' warehouses. Although, being Monday morning meant that the place was near deserted except for the always dependable stoners and hippies who just wandered aimlessly around one place until somebody came along and pointed them towards another store where they could do pretty much the same thing.

As Hyde walked around, he saw that the listening pit had been expanded into several areas and that everywhere there were records, there was a couch and a few chairs to chill out. _Guess I am a moocher_ Hyde thought. Hyde also realised that the wall behind the cash register had been knocked down so that the store could be twice as long and the counter could be a complete circle where customers could queue all around. Basically, the place was incredible.

"Mr. Hyde, there you are."

Hyde turned around at the feminine voice and came face-to-face with the most frustratingly multi-skilled jackass in America.

"Hello, Fenton." Hyde said through gritted teeth. _I knew this was too good to be true._

Fenton smiled and handed a pile of forms over to him, telling him that they needed his signature as soon as possible or else the customers would have nothing to listen to but the music of Barry Bray. Hyde laughed at the irony of his former guidance counsellor giving up a well respected job in full time employment for an under the radar music career.

Once he had ignored Fenton to the point where he flounced off in a huff, Hyde tracked down the cashier and asked them who was working today.

"Um, Kerry, Anna and Susan, I think." the bubbly blonde responded. "But they won't be here for a few hours, if you wanted to…" As if it wasn't enough that he had hired an all-female workforce, Hyde cringed when he realised that a 16 year old girl thought it was perfectly normal to be hitting on him. Just how badly could one person screw up in a dream?

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EL CAMINO

Hyde had managed to avoid any more run-ins with horny teenagers long enough to sneak into his office and escape with his address book and pants still intact. He had pulled over to the side of the road and was flicking through the thick book which was mainly filled with numbers for accountants, delivery men, suppliers, and tour managers. But eventually Hyde reached came across a tiny squiggle on the corner of one of the back pages and breathed a sigh of relief when he found Eric and Donna's details listed. He also briefly wondered why two of his oldest friends got such a crappy entry. With any luck, he could find their house before he woke up and spent the entire day being plagued with why he was experiencing the most vivid dream of his life. And also with why his life seemed to be going as he had lately being envisioning it would go, except for when it came to Jackie. She was simply gone without any explanation he could think of.

As he drove, Hyde thought as hard as he could about what he was going to say to his old friends when he got there. He couldn't just ring the doorbell and say, 'Hey, I may or may not be dreaming but could you tell me why I don't remember how I ended up here and why I don't know where Jackie is?' Kelso could get away with asking something as idiotic as that, but not Hyde. No, he had to appear as in control as always and ensure that nothing surprised him to the point where anybody started asking him questions that he couldn't give answers to. Just as he thought about turning back around and staying in his room until he woke up, an idea struck him and he fished around the glove compartment until he found what he was looking for.

"Aha." Hyde said as he held his wallet in front of him. Keeping one hand on the steering wheel, he flipped open his wallet and briefly inspected his driver's licence which, from the date told him that he was dreaming into the 1980's. Hyde laughed at the lunacy of the fact that he had momentarily considered this to be reality and not a horrible nightmare. He may have been one to hit the circle hard from time to time, but he hadn't gotten to the point where he could just misplace several years of his life. Especially years which seemed to have seen such major changes, many of which he was still unaware of. Hyde ignored the next few cards and pictures in his wallet and felt a wave of emptiness wash over him as he came to the end with still no clue about where he had ended up in this 'life'. As always, **her **voice was in the back of his mind, and right now it was asking him why he had no pictures of her when she had a blown-up 6ft long portrait of the two of them in her bedroom. But Hyde was as bewildered as she was because he had no idea why there were no pictures of her in his wallet. Hyde might not be one to wear 'I Love You' t-shirts all day long, he still kept a small snapshot of her with him at all times, and he had just naturally assumed that it would still be the case in some dreamland. Hyde threw the wallet down on the seat next to him and he rubbed his eyes tiredly as he looked at the long stretch of road ahead of him. Another 50 miles to Madison and he had no expectations of waking up before he got there.

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30 MINUTES LATER

The clear road and the smooth roads meant that Hyde had managed to stay pretty relaxed throughout his secluded journey. He hadn't stopped once, and with the trip half over, Hyde's thoughts drifted to how Eric and Donna would look in this world. Age appeared to have started taking its toll on Red and Kitty, so Hyde was hoping that he would have a more pleasant experience when he encountered his friends. He knew he was going to sound like Jackie's clone by saying this but, living in an alternate reality was no excuse for looking bad.

Hyde chuckled as he once again thought of Jackie. Not waking up beside her and not having a picture of her was making him miss her a great deal. If she was her with him now, she would probably be rattling on about how romantic this early morning sun was and how she could see the two of them waking up during their honeymoon to a sight like this. God, he could really want to strangle her sometimes. Lately, she had been talking seriously about the two of them taking some big steps in their relationship, and with Christmas fast approaching, Hyde knew that she would be wishing for an incredibly romantic gesture from him so that they could finish off the New Year with 'one week of the hottest sex marathon of his life', as Jackie had put it. Hyde didn't have much objection to that notion, but he was worried that she was still expecting too much from him. In the last 6 months he had found the courage to build a relationship with W.B, go into full-time employment, and start wearing his sunglasses to bed. Hyde sighed as he thought of that last one. It had only came about when he told her he wasn't risking Kelso sneaking in and hiding them again, so he would just wear them to bed, regardless of whether they got scratched. Jackie finally agreed, saying that waking up to her own reflection was definitely the best way to start the day.

Hyde shook his head as he realised he was getting sidetracked. The point was, he felt as if he was just starting to build a life and he didn't think he could handle one more serious commitment in his life at the moment. But when it came to Jackie… he had this strange problem with saying 'No' to her demands. So, if she wasn't content with the necklace he had bought her the week before and the fact that he had finally relented and bought her a piece of jewellery, he figured he could handle telling her that they might have a future someday but that he wasn't ready to fully commit to one now; that she would just have to be patient with him.

And if he ever escaped from this fucked-up situation, he would work on finding a way on telling her that.

'Madison – 10 miles'

"Huh." Hyde said. He had been so focused on his future for so long that he hadn't noticed how close he was to the end of his trip.

Hyde was getting excited now as he thought of finding out what had became of the next generation of 'Formans'. His address book told him that they were married, but that hardly came as shocker. Eric and Donna would wind up married with 3 kids and a cat named Fluffy, no matter what reality they were in. Hyde was more interested in if Eric had gone into premature baldness like Red had, or if Donna had succumbed to being a stay-at-home mom like Kitty. Anything that Hyde could burn them with when he returned to reality.

With a signpost stating that he was now only 5 miles away from his destination, Hyde figured that he was about to find all this out.

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15 MINUTES LATER

MADISON

BALTIC AVENUE

Hyde whistled as he pulled up in front of the small, but well-kept house he gathered Eric and Donna lived in. From the looks of it, he guessed that they probably didn't have those 3 kids and a cat he had imagined his subconscious would grant them. Instead the house had a small driveway with a car which Hyde assumed his mind must have made up, because he didn't recognise anything about the model except that it had 'DMC' stuck onto the front and Hyde figured that it stood for 'Don't Mention Casey'. After all, Eric only had so many insecurities about him and Donna. It still amazed Hyde how such a scrawny oddball could land a girl as hot as she was, and not feel the least bit threatened by most guys. But Hyde knew better than anyone else how much power a Kelso could hold over a woman, even after they had broken up.

Hyde climbed out of his car, shut the door, and walked up the small garden until he reached the front door which he realised too late was in the process of being repainted.

"Fuck's sake." Hyde muttered after rapping the door a few times. Hyde made sure to keep his hand tucked away from any potential hugs or handshakes when the door opened and Donna looked at him with an enormous smile on her face.

"Hyde!" she yelled, enveloping him in a bear hug.

"Whoa, down Donna." Hyde told her as he felt his feet leave the ground. Hyde saw her wedding band and smiled inwardly. Just as he thought.

Donna laughed. "I knew you'd come today. Not even you could stay away from my med school graduation." Hyde's eyes bulged.

"Y-you're a doctor?" Hyde asked in disbelief. Donna looked at him strangely.

"Well, that was kinda the idea when I spent over $50,000 on tuition."

Hyde remembered his vow not to draw any attention to the fact that he had no idea what was going on. He quickly turned his unsure expression into an amused one.

"No, I just meant it like: whoa, you're a doctor! Congratulations Donna."

Donna beamed at him, but her high was short-lived when she looked at him sadly. "I'm surprised you didn't make it to the funeral."

Hyde's face immediately stilled. She couldn't possibly be talking about…

"I mean, I know you and my dad weren't best buds or anything but I…" Donna trailed off and Hyde tried to cover up the relieved smile that was trying to force its way onto his face by contemplating what she had just told him. Bob, her father, had died and Hyde hadn't even bothered showing up at the funeral. Bordering on being a pervert was one thing, but letting down his friends? This had officially become his worst nightmare. Hyde felt like he had a lot to make up for and he figured that the truth would actually work in this situation.

"God Donna, I'm sorry I wasn't there. Things have been so strange lately and I feel like I am in some totally different place than usual."

Donna was growing more and more freaked out by Hyde's behaviour. He seemed to be talking to her like an actual human being, and not like some modified form of one. She hadn't seen him like this since-

"Hyde?"

Her train of thoughts were broken when the surprised voice of her husband asked the same question she had asked only a minute earlier when she had opened the door. But she had a feeling there would be no hugs during this greeting.

"Forman, hey." Hyde said with small smile. Both Eric and Donna were confused by Hyde's friendly manner and Hyde was quick to notice this. "I guess you're surprised to see me, huh?" Hyde joked.

Eric stepped up beside his wife. "Donna, could you excuse us for a moment, please?" Donna nodded her head and she wearily left the two men alone in the doorway.

Hyde shifted uneasily as Eric looked at him with an even face. It was an uncomfortable silence as neither spoke; Hyde out of natural habit, and Eric out of raging emotions. Finally, the latter spoke,

"What are you doing here, Hyde?"

He was left stunned by the faint tremors of anger in Eric's voice and eventually he opened his mouth to reply.

"You know, I'm-I'm here for Donna's graduation, man." Hyde hoped he bought it because he had a feeling this was one discussion he wouldn't be able to bluff quite so easily.

Eric gave a bitter laugh, and for the first time in their friendship, Hyde felt intimidated by him. "Oh, so you now you want to play the part of the best friend. What happened? My parents finally see sense and kick you and your slut-of-the-week out on your asses?"

Hyde didn't know how to handle the words Eric was firing at him. Hyde had never felt so defenceless against a burn before. The only served to reassure him that this was just some horrible nightmare that would end momentarily. He would wake up in a bit of a sweat, Jackie would stir and notice this, she would be concerned and would stroke the side of his face until he had calmed down, and then Hyde would go upstairs and have breakfast with Kitty, Red and Eric where they would tease each other about what had happened to them the night before. That would all happen in just a moment.

So why wasn't it?

Why was his best friend still staring at him with such coldness in his eyes and why did this seem to only get worse as more time passed?

"Forman man, I'm sorry for whatever I did." Hyde spoke with such sorrow in his voice and he shocked himself at how truly sorry he was for something that had never happened. But Eric wasn't caving with sympathy.

"You're sorry, are you?" Eric asked bitingly. "You haven't talked to us in _three years_, Hyde. And now you show up smiling and saying that you're sorry? I think you'll have to forgive me for not buying into this crap."

His rant was interrupted by a car honking alongside the El Camino. Eric finally broke his concentration of Hyde and leaned behind the door for his coat and for a backpack. "Donna!" Eric yelled through the house. "I'm going over to the school to pickup my class's gift for you! I'll meet you at the ceremony at 4, OK?"

Hyde heard Donna descend the stairs and come to give her husband a quick kiss on the lips. "OK, don't be late." One last glare and Eric was gone, leaving Hyde to stand there and wallow in self-pity. Letting his friends down was hard enough, but ignoring them? And 'slut-of-the-week' didn't exactly convince him that he was living a rosy life with Jackie.

Donna looked sympathetically at Hyde and motioned for him to come in. He did, and Donna tried to remain calm and collected with this situation. She may not have held a grudge for as long as Eric had, but she still wanted answers from Hyde. Starting with what he was doing here.

"So," Donna said, breaking the silence, "what really bring you here, Hyde?"

Hyde looked at her blankly and shrugged. "I don't know."

"Ah, the famous last words." Donna said wistfully but Hyde just stared at her, not catching her reference to the biggest mistake of his life. She figured that a social life of nothing but booze and circle-time had begun taking its toll on his memory. It would certainly explain why Hyde had shown up the way he did and why he seemed so much more spaced out than she ever remembered him being.

Hyde suddenly stood up and inspected the contents of the living room. Besides the typical furniture, a few photos on the mantle caught his eyes and he immediately walked over to get a closer look at them. One was of Eric and Donna at their wedding, another was of Eric, Donna, Red and Kitty at Eric's college graduation, but it was the last photo that made Hyde's heart hurt.

It was a shot taken in this room, obviously at a party as there was a buffet table in the background and several people's elbows making their way into the shot. In the photo were Eric, Donna, Fez, Kelso and Jackie, all sitting on the couch with drinks in their hands and smiles on their faces and no sign of Hyde anywhere. He thought that none of them had changed a bit. Sure, some had gained weight, though still not Eric, but for the most the group of five looked almost exactly the same as they had yesterday.

Hyde looked up and Donna smiled sadly at him when she saw what he was holding. "Doesn't look right, does it?" Hyde said nothing, which pleased Donna because now was hardly the time for her to deal with him unloading a lifetime's supply of emotional baggage. "Believe me; we weren't like that all that often. We just weren't the same after you-"

"_Were_?" Hyde questioned, uninterested in what Donna was about to tell him.

Donna shrugged. "Well, the five of us don't really see each other all that often. Not that you'd know what that's like." Hyde looked up in surprise. "Sorry."

Any other day, or any other reality, Hyde would have just let it go but he had to press the issue here. "Donna, what happened? With you guys, I mean."

Donna gave a short laugh and leaned forward in her seat. "Where do you want me to begin?" Hyde gave her no answer, which basically told her that he wanted to know everything. She took a deep breath and prepared to re-open this can of worms once again. "Well let's see… Kelso is still in Chicago with Brooke and Betsy. But they're not together anymore. They tried for a bit, but it just wasn't working."

_Kelso moved? _Hyde thought in surprise but he nodded and urged her to continue.

"Uh, Kelso used to come up and visit a lot when everybody was still in Point Place but that photo was really the last time he came for a real visit. After that, he got so busy with work and with Betsy that it was just a phone call once a month or so."

Hyde frowned at this and felt himself falling deeper and deeper into despair.

"Fez…" Donna stopped herself when she had to laugh. "Fez is actually working as Christine St. George's hair stylist in New York."

"New York?" Hyde asked in surprise. The last time he checked, Fez was the shampoo boy in a tiny salon.

Donna laughed again. "Yeah, we all still have a little trouble with it ourselves. Christine is about 70 now, but somehow she still thinks it's worthwhile to spend 3 hours a day getting her hair done." She was silent for a few moments as she thought of what else he had missed out on. "Oh, well as you can see, Eric and I are living here. He's working at an elementary school a few miles away and in a few hours, I will have graduated medical school." Donna stated with a proud smile. Hyde smiled back at her and thought that all in all, his friends had done pretty well for themselves.

"And Jackie?" Hyde asked with a lot more interest than he had shown up until now.

Donna's proud smile immediately froze and her forehead wrinkled in confusion. "OK, I'm all for the new and improved Hyde, but you can't seriously expect me to believe that you care about Jackie all of a sudden?"

Hyde had to wake up now. He couldn't handle another moment of this. In the last few hours, he had woken up beside a mysterious woman, found out that his sanctuary had been remodelled, been labelled a freeloader by the man he thought of as his father, been flirted with by a teenager and pretty much revealed to be employing people based on their oestrogen levels, treated as a piece of shit by his oldest friend, been told that all of his friends had moved on with their own lives, been told that he didn't even take an interest in their lives anymore, and that he was hanging out with anyone who would give it up for free. All of this would drive a man like Steven Hyde to suicide, but being told that he apparently didn't care about Jackie Burkhart? He felt like he was going to collapse right there and then.

He walked quickly over to Donna and kneeled in front of her, gripping her arms. "What happened to Jackie, Donna?" he asked, not caring that she was currently looking at him with fear in her eyes. Fear of what had set him off like this.

"Hyde, I…"

"Where is she!" he demanded.

_To be continued…_

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**A/N: **So where is she? If you want to find out, review!

Stay safe.


	2. The Meeting

**The Morning After… what?**

Chapter 2 – The Meeting.

**A/N: **I love you all. I don't think I can say anything else after the response Chapter 1 received. Thank you so much and I hope you continue to enjoy this story.

**Disclaimer: **Own nothing.

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_**Previously…**_

_He walked quickly over to Donna and kneeled in front of her, gripping her arms. "What happened to Jackie, Donna?" he asked, not caring that she was currently looking at him with fear in her eyes. Fear of what had set him off like this._

"_Hyde, I…"_

"_Where is she!" he demanded._

_----------_

Donna shook her arms out of Hyde's tight grasp. "For God's sake Hyde, what is wrong with you?" she asked, standing up from her seat. Hyde stepped back, mumbling an apology, and began to pace around the room in small circles.

Too many mental images about where Jackie could possibly be meant that he hadn't even noticed that Donna had asked him another question. When he didn't reply, Donna thought to herself about just how far down her friend had fallen over the last few years. To look at him, one wouldn't think he had touched a beer in weeks, but she knew better. She knew him, or at least, she thought she did.

Donna was becoming increasingly unnerved at his erratic behaviour, and considering she had to give a speech in front of 200 people in a couple of hours, she really didn't have the time to talk him off the proverbial ledge right now. Just as she was contemplating kicking him out on his ass, the doorbell rang, and Donna seized the opportunity to get away from Hyde for a few moments but he followed her walk to see for himself who was at the door. Everytime the bell rang, he thought it was her. Everytime there was a knock at the door, he thought it was her.

"Dammit Jackie, where are you?"

"_Please be space aliens. Please be space aliens._" Donna whispered to herself as she walked towards the front door. She smiled when she saw who were on the other side.

"Mom, Dad! I didn't think you'd ever get here!" Bob laughed and stepped over the threshold to hug his only daughter. He was sure there had been another girl who had hung around the house years ago, but Donna was always the apple of his eye.

"We wouldn't miss it for the world, sweetie." Bob told her affectionately. He reluctantly moved back again so that mother and daughter could share a tender moment as well.

Donna laughed happily as she took in the sight of her happily reunited parents. The '80s may have changed her dad's hair from an afro to a mohawk and her mom's IQ from a 4 to a 3, but the biggest change for Donna was seeing the two of them remarrying after almost 5 years of dating.

Bob and Midge walked into the house and instinctively went into the living room, where they received quite a shock.

"Steven??" they both chorused. Hyde briefly looked up from his seat on the couch and gave the pair a weak, forced smile which they seemed to buy without hesitation. Midge ran over to him and hugged his head quickly. "Steven, I was so sorry to hear what happened. You can squeeze my boob if you want?" Midge offered with a wide smile.

"No thanks, Midge." Hyde told her. _Did I really just turn down the chance to feel up Midge?_ Hyde had been too busy thinking to notice Donna was still standing awkwardly in the doorframe and was eyeing Hyde. Her parents didn't notice this tension either, and before it even had a chance to escalate, Midge walked away from Hyde and over to Donna, clasping her hands excitedly.

"Oh Donna! I am going to make you so beautiful that those doctors' hearts stop beating right there! Then you can save them!" Hyde cringed inwardly. If this was a dream, then couldn't he have at least dreamed of her having a less scratchy and annoying voice? _Speaking of annoying voices… _Hyde thought. Hyde briefly dispelled all thoughts of Jackie when Midge led Donna up

the stairs to where he presumed was Eric and Donna's bedroom, leaving Hyde alone with a jittering Bob. He struggled not to laugh at the sight of his long-term neighbour. The '70s had seen burn after burn about Bob's hairstyle and now that he had managed to outdo himself with this latest fashion atrocity, Hyde regretted knowing that the gang weren't around anymore to take full advantage of his mohawk. He could just picture Fez admiring the spikes like they were sticks of gold, while he, Kelso and Eric tried to come up with ways of destroying Bob's hairstyle. As had been happening to him a lot today, Hyde was too absorbed in his neighbour's body hair to notice he was being approached again. Snapping out of his daze, Hyde muttered an incoherent sound.

Bob smiled and began talking again about anything that might relieve the tension. "So, I see you've finally shaved your moustache." Hyde didn't look amused and Bob was quick to correct himself. "Not that there was anything wrong with it in the first place." Bob stated emphatically. Pointing to his hair, Bob said, "We all have our little quirks, don't we?" Bob gave a little chuckle and sat back in his seat to get more relaxed. Apart from a couple of beers at a wrestling game here and there, he and Hyde had never really bonded over anything, and from what Donna told him, Hyde wasn't the guy to bare your soul to these days.

Despite proclaiming on many occasions that he thrived on silence and sunk like the Titanic during conversation, Hyde didn't have it in him to experience one more tense situation today, and he decided to see if Bob could be of any more help to him about Jackie's whereabouts than Donna hadn't been.

"So," Hyde started, "have you heard from Kelso or Fez lately?" Hyde frowned when Bob gave him the same bewildered expression Donna had given him when he had asked about Jackie. He couldn't have become this much of a jackass, could he?

_Don't pull at that thread_ Hyde warned himself. If living behind walls his entire life had taught Hyde anything, it was that a warehouse full of bottled up anger meant that he had an inordinate ability to be as cruel as he wanted.

After Bob had gotten over the surprising question, he nodded his head and replied, "Yeah, my Midgie is a big fan of Fez's now. Whenever he gives Christine a new style, he sends a sample of the conditioner to our house." Hyde smiled when he realised that Bob had just referred to her as 'my Midgie', meaning that they were back together again. The last Hyde heard, Midge had just given up on getting back together with Bob and had gone back to Florida with a bus ticket taped to her lapel. Now they were reunited?

_I wonder if they started up the nudist parties again_ Hyde wondered.

"And Michael, boy has he done well for himself!" Bob told Hyde in astonishment. "I was down at the police station the other day and they had this picture of his house on the notice board. It's worth more than Alexis Carrington!"

Bob laughed and Hyde couldn't believe that his dodo of a friend had become such a big success. Naturally, he would have assumed Brooke had the brains to run a household, but from the way everybody was talking about Kelso, Hyde had to admit that they all might have underestimated his friend's abilities over the years.

Bob continued, "One lucky spot as a contestant on a game show, and they are set for life."

Hyde nodded. _That's more like it_ he thought.

Hyde swore under his breath as he realised he had been sitting in this dingy little room for far too long and still hadn't uncovered one single detail about his girlfriend's whereabouts. Clearing his throat, Hyde tried the more direct approach.

"So, Bob. What's going on with Jackie?"

Hyde's attempt at being casual and aloof backfired when his voice cracked mid-sentence out of nervousness about what possible answer he would get. Hyde looked up in amazement when Bob began chuckling. "Well, if I've got the right time, she'll be bracing the freezing cold Madison weather and tipping whoever had the muscle to drag her suitcases from baggage claim." Hyde's eyes bulged and he shot up from his seat.

"She's here?" he exclaimed.

"Shh!" Bob ordered, standing up himself. He whispered, "It's supposed be a surprise for Donna. I got Jackie, Michael and Fez to come up for the weekend for her graduation and this was the soonest Jackie could get here." Hyde started pacing around again nervously and Bob misinterpreted the reasoning behind this. "Don't tell me you two still aren't speaking, Steven?" Bob asked in disbelief.

Hyde looked up at him, speechless. Again.

Bob stepped up to him. "Now Steven, I'm not too clear on what exactly happened with you two, but this is **Donna's **graduation and I don't want either you or Jackie making a scene today. Got it?" Bob fixed his eyes on Hyde's and the younger man couldn't have hid his surprise even if he wanted to. Bob Pinciotti had apparently grown a pair and was willing to confront Steven Hyde without so much as a stutter.

Hyde slowly nodded and sat back down on the couch, limply. Suddenly, he shot up again, as if just realising that Jackie was coming back to him in less than an hour. Now he could find her, sort out this drama and wake up to a 2-hour period of morning sex.

"Sounds good." Hyde stated. "Uh, where are the guys all staying?"

"A hotel, a few miles away from the medical school. It's only a 20 minute drive." Bob hoped that Hyde wasn't planning to do anything stupid when he saw Jackie again. Or when he was reunited with Kelso and Fez. The only thing worse than relationship drama, was the idea of the three stooges being together again. "But wait to go with us, because I don't want Donna getting suspicious."

Hyde looked in the direction of the stairs. "I think she's already getting suspicious..." Hyde murmured.

----------

AN HOUR LATER

MADISON GRAND HOTEL

PARKING LOT

Bob may have not always been the most hands-on of fathers, but it was clear from the fact that he had rented a limousine, that he was very proud of his daughter. As the chauffeur pulled into the buzzing parking lot, Hyde, Bob, Donna and Midge were all too busy with their own thought to notice how nervous everybody was.

_My baby is graduating._

_I'm graduating!_

_I should have worn shin guards for when I see Jackie._

_This vibrating seat is making me tingly all over. Ooh!_

The group were shaken from their thoughts when the chauffeur pulled open the door and held out a hand to help Donna climb out, then Midge, then Bob, and then the scowling face of a man which said, 'touch my hand and you'll be lucky to drive a golf club.'

Hyde fell back from the small group as they approached the entrance of the hotel. While he saw the three of them take a seat in the comfortable lobby, Hyde was busy looking for the sign for the bar when, on his right, he heard on the deafening yet animated voice of a girl he held very close to his heart. Smiling widely, Hyde practically flew off the ground and over to the doorway of the bar where he saw her, standing at the bar counter with her hands on her hips glaring at a poor young girl who Hyde could tell had incurred the wrath of Jackie Burkhart, who was looking absolutely drop-dead stunningly gorgeous.

"Listen, _waitress_. If I wanted to smell like diseased pork, then I would have bought the same brand of toilet water you are wearing and currently wafting around this hotel. And as for this gin and tonic? How about, you go over to that pre-pubescent little stickman for a barman of yours, who you were drooling over when you spilled my order all over my new outfit and my new _Gucci_ purse, and throw this drink down his throat until you start looking reasonably attractive to him. And considering how you look, you might need a head start. Now shoo!"

The waitress tried miserably to defend herself. "But Miss-"

"She said shoo!" Hyde, who was leaning casually against the doorframe and smiling proudly at this goddess, had to stop leering at Jackie like a lovesick puppy when he heard a very familiar foreigner come up behind her. Hyde couldn't help himself anymore and moved to walk towards them when somebody bumped into him from behind.

"Hey, watch it!" the man shrieked.

_Oh, God._

Hyde turned around a forced a smile. "Kelso, good to see you man."

Kelso's whole face lit up when he saw who he had just walked into. "Hyde! It's you! Awesome!" Hyde grabbed Kelso by the ear and dragged him out into the lobby. "Ow, ow, ow…" Hyde was well used to ignoring his friend's groans when he was kicking his ass, but now was not the time for an ass-kicking.

"Kelso, shut it!" Hyde whispered as forcefully as he could. Kelso leaned into him.

"Why are we whispering?"

"Because I don't want Jackie to see me for the first time kicking your ass!"

"So, why don't you just go talk to her?"

"I was going to, but you knocked into me."

"Oh, sorry. Well, go talk to her now, Hyde."

"I will."

"OK. Can I stop whispering now?"

Hyde stared in amazement at his friend. "No Kelso. I want you to do a whispering marathon for the US whispering Olympics. I hear they're introducing a new mime event and everything."

Kelso, as oblivious as ever, smiled widely. "Awesome, man."

---------

5 MINUTES LATER

5 minutes later. 5 minutes later, and Hyde had gotten half way across the room before he needed to turn around and bolt out of the bar again. Now, he was leaning against the wall outside of the bar, which led to the bathrooms, and hiding from a girl he had once described as a "tiny benign cyst". If he wasn't so scared, he would kick himself for worsening his own nightmare. Hiding by the bathroom was the biggest girly thing a man could do and here Hyde was, doing exactly that.

As luck would have it, Jackie was currently making her way across the bar and in his direction but the reunion of two best friends can effectively dampen any chance of a couple running into each other.

"Jackie!"

"Donna!"

The two girls started screaming in the middle of the floor and jumped up and down in a massive hug while they did the only girly thing there was left to do; they started crying.

"I can't believe you made it." Donna exclaimed while holding onto Jackie tightly. Jackie shook her head and tried to blink the happy tears away.

"I almost didn't because of these damn waiters!" Jackie answered in as subtle a manner as she could manage.

When the two friends broke apart, they started commenting on each others' dresses and in turn, Jackie began another rant about the wait staff in the hotel while Donna attempted to remember how to take in all of Jackie's words without having her head explode. The mood was only dampened when the girls were told by the bartender told them to either quieten down or get out. Donna saw the flash of warning and dragged Jackie out of the bar before she started a bar brawl. The girls moved to sit on the couch in the lobby and were already laughing again by the time they sat down. Donna remembered who was here with her today.

"Listen, Jackie. Something really big happened to me today..."

Jackie looked at her friend, concerned. "Oh God, did the President ban flannel in the northern states? Because as big of a step as that is for America, it was cruel to do it on your graduation." Donna rolled here eyes and wasn't sure if she wanted to hit her or hug her again.

"No Jackie. This isn't about clothes. This is about something much more important."

Jackie gasped.

Donna spoke in such a grave tone, that Jackie felt herself begin to grow uneasy. There were only so many things that Donna knew would give her reason to be so concerned.

"Tell me." Jackie ordered.

Donna took a deep breath, and spoke, "It's-"

"Big D!" "Donna!"

Donna gasped in shock and slowly turned around in her seat to see the practically glowing faces of her two favourite perverts. "Oh my God," Donna stated with a laugh. She got up to hug the pair and after Kelso and Fez had each copped a few good feels, the group separated and the four of them were soon sitting around a table in the lobby, joking and laughing, while Hyde lurked on the other side of the room, watching enviously as his friends enjoyed themselves without caring that he wasn't there with them.

"Fuck this." Hyde muttered and he turned around only to come face-to-face with another person who hated his guts. "Hey, Forman."

Eric looked wearily at Hyde and suddenly placed an arm around his shoulders and led him over to where Kelso, Fez, Donna and Jackie sat.

"Hey guys, look what I found."

The foursome looked up at the sound of Eric's voice and Fez leapt up and threw himself onto Eric and Hyde in sheer joy. Giving them both a kiss on the sides of their heads, Fez jumped back down and began skipping around the hotel lobby in excitement. Kelso, too got up and hugged Eric briefly, but he was too focused on his whispering marathon to make a huge deal of seeing Eric again.

"Guys," Kelso whispered, "I'm gonna go find a microphone so you can all hear me better." Eric, Donna and Jackie stared at him in confusion while Hyde put his head in his hands, trying not to cry with frustration at the idiot.

With Kelso and Fez wandering around on their own planets, the four remaining people shifted uncomfortably while Hyde and Jackie tried sneaking glances at each other, only to be caught by each other so many times that they were half-tempted just to rip their eyes from their sockets right there and then.

Eric cleared his throat. "Donna, you wanna get a drink?"

"Oh God, yes."

And then there were two.

----------

3 HOURS LATER

Since nothing beyond a few weak smiles had come from being left alone, Jackie and Hyde were busying themselves in the party room along with Red, Kitty, Eric, Kelso and Fez. Bob and Midge were at the ceremony with Donna and the rest of the gang were decorating the room for her graduation party, which was scheduled to kick off in an hour. That is, if Red and Eric could agree on the best method of blowing up a balloon.

"Dad, the whole point of buying a helium pump, is so that you don't have to kill off the last remaining bit of lung power you have locked inside of you."

Red put the balloon down. "Well, how about I use the last little bit of power in my foot to lock it in your ass?"

Eric looked at him blankly. "Never gets old."

Kitty was busy laying out the food when she noticed Fez trying to inconspicuously move closer towards the buffet table. "Now, Fez, you cut that out," she warned him. "This food is for Donna's party and I do not want to see a crumb of it missing when I get back from the bathroom. Understand?" she asked in a voice which told him it wasn't a question. Fez gulped and nodded.

"Yes, Miss Kitty."

She nodded happily and sauntered off to the little girl's room, leaving Fez to deal with the age old question; to eat or not to eat?

Fez began shaking nervously as everybody suddenly seemed to move to the other side of the room and leave him surrounded by a land of delicacies. He leaned in towards the freshly baked food and sniffed the air around it in ecstasy. "Oh, this is better than shampoo. This is better than candy, this is better than sex!" Fez yelled in joy, but he soon regretted his words when he looked down at his pants. "Oh, I'm sorry. I did not mean that my little buddies." Fez reached down inside his pants and grabbed hold of something long and sticky, and he pulled it out. "Ah, my box of 'Little Buddies'. What ever did I do before you and all your lovely raisin friends were created?" Like a child on Halloween, Fez gulped down candy piece after candy piece, until he was ready to throw up from the taste. _Now I shall move onto the cake_ Fez thought.

Since becoming a father, Kelso had really perfected his art of guessing presents, and now was the perfect chance to show off his skills.

He picked up a thin, square package. "A photo frame," he muttered, disinterested. He then picked up a thick envelope. "Two tickets to see Led Zeppelin in Chicago and an all-expenses paid weekend stay at the Plaza Hotel with a coupon for a massage." Kelso placed the envelope back down. "This is too easy." Kelso said to himself.

Hyde and Jackie had been ignoring each other for so long, that they hadn't even realised that they were right next to each other in their uncoordinated attempt to hang decorations on the wall and when they inadvertently bumped into one another, they reacted like two virgins at their junior prom.

"Sorry…stuff…accident…"

The mumbling was getting embarrassing for those who just had to hear it, so Red took it upon himself to once again scare the shit out of these kids until they started paying some real attention.

"Alright! Everybody, stop what you're doing!" Red commanded.

Kelso dropped a wrapped box onto his foot and howled in pain, Fez whipped around with a cream and chocolate mess on his hands, mouth and hair, Eric let go of the balloon and it started whizzing around the room, while Kitty threw the glass of wine she had been about to sip from, up into the air and it spilled all over her blouse.

Red looked around at his idiotic cohorts. "That's better." He then turned to the two reasons behind this disastrous party planning. "Jackie, Steven. Come with me."

The pair dropped what they were doing and followed Red out into the corridor which led to several other party rooms which were located on that floor.

As soon as his pissed off expression met their terrified ones, Hyde and Jackie were more than happy to look at each other than to make eye contact with Red Forman. "Listen you two, those oddballs may not always be the sharpest tools in the box, but even they can see that you two still haven't grown a pair and gotten over whatever it is that happened with you. Now frankly, I couldn't care less about your 'I wuv you' 'I hate you' routines. Just put it on hold for a night, and then you can feel free to make it each others' problem tomorrow. But as long as your around me, I don't want to hear a peep from either of you. Are we clear?"

Like they were in the military, which would have been a lot more pleasant than the wrath of Red, Hyde and Jackie synchronised their nods and Red eyed them one last time before turning around and walking away, muttering about 'damn puppy love.'

Hyde turned to look at Jackie. "Still think you're Red's favourite?"

And after earning himself a patented 'Jackie' glare, Hyde let out a breath and suddenly felt a little bit lighter now that he had initiated some direct contact with the girl he had spent the entire day worrying about. But with no scars, and no wedding ring thankfully, she seemed to be just as he remembered her. Perhaps tonight, he could remind her of that.

After all, they always had fun at dances.

----------

"SURPRISE!"

"Oh my God! Thank you all so much!"

Bob looked at her. "Midge, it's not for you. It's for Donna." Midge nodded blankly and she wandered off towards the bar where Kitty had taken up residence before 'Surprise' was even half-way out of her mouth.

"You know Kitty," Midge started, "After seeing Steven today; sometimes I think that he is from some other world and that he just sees us all as figments of his imagination. What do you think?"

"I think you need more champagne, Midge." Kitty told her, silencing her 'dim' friend and the pair knocked back another glass. And another glass. And another glass. And this continued on doing this until Donna's fellow graduates had arrived and were attempting to lift Midge and Kitty off of the bar counter so that they could get ear the taps.

After a few hours, the party was beginning to wind down and Red and Bob had taken their respective wives back to Donna's house, leaving Hyde, Jackie, Eric, Donna, Fez, Kelso and a few of Eric and Donna's closest friends to keep the fun going into the small hours.

Nobody could remember who had suggested it, but somehow the group had ended up playing 'Seven Minutes in Heaven'. And with an uneven number of boys and girls, Hyde was praying for some hilarity to ensue. By this point, Hyde was too wasted to even remember what a dream felt like and he decided this way, he could enjoy himself and do whatever he felt like doing, because after all,

"None of this is real," Hyde reassured himself.

Donna went first and of course everybody was too drunk to notice that she looked around for Eric's name and pulled it out without hesitation. When they had their seven minutes, Donna's college friend, Colette went next and drew the name of Sheila, a middle-aged divorced woman who worked with Eric. Kelso, of course, could hardly contain his excitement.

"Aw yeah! Girl on girl action! Now it's a party!"

The group all laughed, but the alcohol was making them slur like a couple of constipated Irish people on New Year's Eve. However, the 'laughs' stopped when Fez muttered an 'uh oh' after picking up the name of his partner and looked squarely in Kelso's direction.

"Oh no. Oh, please God no!" Kelso was on his knees begging when he realised what this game was asking of him.

Jackie sat forward from her sprawled out position against the couch. "Nu uh, Michael." Jackie told him in her slur. "Yuz gotda smoochie Fezzie!" Again, everybody laughed and Hyde slipped from resting on his hands and fell down on top of Jackie, who started laughing and squirming when he suddenly began tickling her. They were each so intoxicated that any lingering awkwardness had long since been drunk away, and all that was left was their flirty nature. Hyde stopped tickling her after a minute, and involuntarily dropped his head onto her shoulder and he slowly rubbed his stubbled chin against her collarbone. Despite having a hard-on in a room full of your oldest friends and some complete strangers not being the best predicament for a guy to find himself in, Hyde had went through too much anguish today to even try and resist snuggling up to her. And Jackie was so far gone in her drunken stupor that she happily let his dead weight lie on top of her until the pair were both fast asleep in each other's arms, like they had been so many times before.

After Kelso and Fez emerged from the storeroom in a somewhat frazzled manner, which Kelso had blamed on the heat in the room, Jackie was called up to pick out a name from the bowl, but she was sound asleep underneath Hyde, and neither looked as if they were going to stir anytime soon.

Donna sighed when she saw the pair. As sad as she was about how her once unbreakable circle of friends had gone their separate ways, she had long since come to terms with the fact that Hyde and Jackie just didn't seem to work together anymore. And she knew that something as simple as drunken flirting could re-open old wounds for the pair so, reassuming her role as the only level-headed one in the group, Donna turned to Kelso for help in moving Hyde and Jackie away from each other, but he was currently engaged in a make out session with a bar stool. Groaning, she realised that she was the next strongest person here and that she would probably end up having to drag the group to bed while they vomited onto her new shoes. Choosing the lightest person first, Eric, Donna picked him up over her shoulder and slowly carried him to the room Bob had rented for them for tonight. When she came back, Kelso and Collette were stumbling their way down the stairs and Fez was passed out on a laundry trolley. Smiling, despite the absurdity of this evening, Donna decided to leave well enough alone and went to gather up the last remaining victims of her graduation party's tumultuous ending. She managed to wake Sheila up after several slaps to the face and both women were currently dragging Hyde and Jackie into Jackie's room.

"I'm still not sure about this." Donna told her. "Knowing these two, they'll forget their past and hook up tonight."

Sheila laughed. "Oh honey, these two won't be hooked up to anything besides a toilet seat for tonight. Don't worry so much. This is your graduation day." Donna smiled at the hefty woman and thought about what she had just said. The hard work was over and in a few weeks, she would begin her surgical internship at a new hospital with plenty of new faces. So, as long as she managed to keep Hyde and Jackie apart in the meantime, she could start her career with relative certainty that her friends had at least a chance of becoming a part of each others' lives again. Once they had placed Jackie on her bed, and Hyde on the chair next to the bathroom, Donna and Sheila closed the hotel room door and were about to go their separate ways for the night, when Sheila decided to find out the juicy story that surrounded the two sleeping people in that room.

"So Donna," Sheila started, "Those two dated, didn't they?"

Donna smiled wistfully. "No. They were married."

_To be continued…_

_----------_

**A/N: **I changed my plan for this chapter so many times; that I don't even know which path I will choose for the next chapter. I've got a few different ideas about where to take this story from here and I hope you all stick around to find out where that is. Review please!

Stay safe.


	3. Together and Apart

**The Morning After… what?**

Chapter 3 – Together and Apart.

**A/N: **Thank you for the reviews. They always cheer me up and with the weekend I've been having… don't get me started. I know a number of you are very curious about what is going on with Bob being dead and then alive, but I told you this story would be different from my others. But for the time being, you can forget about Bob and just enjoy the long road ahead of us. I checked wikipedia and it said that Prada started with accessories in 1989 and I sorta forgot to mention last time that this is set in 1989. Sorry!

Happy reading!

**Disclaimer: **Own nothing.

----------

_**Previously…**_

"_So Donna," Sheila started, "Those two dated, didn't they?"_

_Donna smiled wistfully. "No. They were married."_

_----------_

THE NEXT MORNING

MADISON GRAND HOTEL

JACKIE'S ROOM

The sun streamed onto her pillow and after spending the best part of an hour trying to ignore the morning light and go back to sleep, Jackie relented and begrudgingly threw the covers off of her and sat up, only to feel the full strength of her first hangover in quite a while. Reconnecting with her old friends and with her ex-husband hadn't exactly done wonders for her head and if there have ever been a moment of doubt about continuing to avoid him, then that moment quickly vanished when a jackhammer banged on her temples until she couldn't take the nauseating feelings anymore. She swiftly threw her feet off of the bed and onto the ground when she met a hard, lumpy surface. The sound of a low, muffled groan led Jackie to question just how drunk she had actually gotten last night. Peering over her knees to see what, or who her foot had just connected with, Jackie swore under her breath when she was greeted by curls, shades and a frown.

"You."

Hyde smiled up at her, sarcastically. "Pleasure as always, darling'." Hyde rolled onto his side, allowing Jackie to climb out of bed and stumble into the bathroom where she immediately slammed the door, making both their morning headaches even worse.

Inside the bathroom, Jackie placed her arms on either side of the sink and bowed her head. She lifted her head and cringed at the sight of her bloodshot eyes, flat hair, and dry skin. Part of her was thankful for this disastrous appearance as it meant that she could stall in the bathroom for quite some time in case she needed to empty her stomach again, or in case she had another run in with one self-righteous son-of-a-bitch.

Groaning, she limply moved away from the sink and lifted her small toiletry bag from the bathtub. After she had washed the make-up off her face, brushed her teeth, thrown up from the smell of the toothpaste, and brushed her teeth again, Jackie put on her dark-rimmed sunglasses and walked back out to where she saw Hyde still sprawled out on the floor and drooling over her brand-new Prada purse.

Jackie's face was on fire and she stormed over to where he slept and she kicked his side to wake him up, or crack one of his ribs. Right now she wasn't sure which one she wanted more.

After a few more sharp kicks, Hyde's mind began to register what was going on and he blocked his side from the ongoing attack. "Dammit Jackie, stop kicking me!" he growled.

Exhaling loudly, Jackie snatched her purse from underneath his head and held it up for him to see clearly. "You see this? This purse cost more than the total bar sales Mrs Forman generated last night. Prada is the newest fashion brand to hit the streets and right now, I do not want to have to be the first person to tell them that my loser ex drooled all over their debut line!"

After storming off again with her trademark huff, Hyde chuckled to himself and relied on the bed to pull him up off the floor. He sat on the bed and buried his head in his hands.

Ex.

That was what she had called him. Or a 'loser ex' if he was being specific. Hyde still didn't know why he hadn't woken up by this point. No dream had ever felt as if it had lasted 24 hours and no dream had ever made him so drunk that he blacked out for a couple of hours. Hyde began to accept the possibility that none of this was a dream, and that he was merely just a loser ex-boyfriend, slut-of-the-week free-loader who spent so much of his time being stoned that he had lost out on the last several years of his life.

But Hyde wasn't going to wallow in any life-altering event. If his life sucked, he could change it. With a renewed sense of hope and adrenaline pumping through is body, Hyde stood up and was about to start rebuilding his life when the aftermath of last night began to catch up with him.

"Oh, I'm gonna be sick."

The only sounds that came from the hotel room were that of wretching and moaning, and fashion-conscious bitching.

"_If you throw up over my shoes, then you will be praying for nothing more than a kick in the ribs!"_

----------

HOTEL LOBBY

HALF AN HOUR LATER

Showered and refined, Jackie was feeling a lot more chipper knowing that she was the most beautiful person in the hotel and that everybody's eyes were on her.

She slung her purse over her shoulder and walked into the hotel restaurant where she saw Donna and Kelso talking over breakfast. Smiling, she walked over and sat down next to the pair. "Hey guys."

Kelso smiled suggestively at her. "Hyde Jackie. I mean, Hey, Jackie." Jackie stared at him strangely and looked at Donna for clarification but she looked like she was about to punch him.

"Michael, how about you go and get me some breakfast. There'll be a special treat for you when you come back."

Kelso looked like a dog that had just been promised a mailman to run after, and he bolted from the table and began shoving people out of the line to the buffet table.

Content that they would have some privacy, Jackie put her purse down in front of her, folded her arms on the table and bowed her head in shame. "Donna, I think I did something terrible last night."

"Oh God," Donna's eyes widened in horror. "I knew I shouldn't have put you two in the same room! And now you've-"

"What?" Jackie interrupted in amazement. She looked around her and leaned closer to Donna with a look to kill. "You," she started in a low voice, "put me," she pointed to herself, "and him," she pointed above her, "in a hotel room," she gestured around her, "when we had both been drinking?" There were no hand movements with the last comment and she simply shrieked at her best friend.

Donna smiled sheepishly. "I didn't really think there'd be a problem. I mean, you two haven't seen each other in so long, and you were both so wasted last night I didn't think you'd be able to figure out what went where."

"But Donna!" Jackie exclaimed as if trying to draw her friend's attention to something more pressing. "He spent the whole night in the same room with me, and my belongings." Donna gasped.

"Oh my God, did he find-"

"I don't know!" Jackie put her head back in her hands. "I hope not."

Donna looked at her friend apologetically. "I'm so sorry, Jackie. But you two didn't…" she trailed off.

Jackie shook her head vehemently. "No, no. No amount of drinking could make me that desperate for 10 minutes of being left dissatisfied."

Donna laughed. "Hyde, really? 10 minutes?"

Jackie rolled her eyes at her. "Believe me, it wasn't the first thing to go in that marriage."

Donna frowned at her sunken friend. No matter how busy she had been over the last 8 years, Jackie had always managed to take check in and see how her life was going. But with Donna, she had pretty much neglected Jackie for the sake of getting her degree and then coming top of her class and then getting the best residency. And she hadn't exactly gotten any of them the way she wanted to. "It's so sad to see what you two have become."

Jackie smiled sadly and looked back up at Donna with tear filled eyes. "But all good things…, right?"

Donna nodded weakly and the two women were relieved when Kelso jumped back into his seat with an overflowing bowl of cereal and every kind of salad topping, which he quickly delivered onto Jackie's placemat.

"Now where's my treat?"

----------

MADISON AIRPORT

Kelso's car pulled up in front of the entrance and Jackie, Donna and Eric quickly jumped out from the back seat while Fez and Kelso climbed out and walked towards Jackie like puppies about to be kicked. Her heart broke for the both of them.

"Aw, come here you two!" The two men enveloped Jackie in a hug and lifted her off of the ground. At first Jackie thought it was a sweet gesture, but after 5 minutes of narrowly escaping the path of angry pigeons, she was eager to get down. "You guys, let me down now." But neither Kelso nor Fez was willing to let go of her just yet and Jackie motioned to Donna, who was currently leaning against her husband and laughing at the sight. Sighing, Donna used her strength to unlock Jackie from Fez's grip and she handed him off to Eric. Then, she turned to Kelso and grabbed one of his hands and placed it on her boobs. Kelso immediately dropped Jackie and he turned to take full advantage of this opportunity.

Jackie frowned and sorely stood up, dusting herself off. "Thanks a lot you guys. I wasn't expecting to be dropped on my ass so early in the afternoon." Kelso was still preoccupied with Donna's breasts and Fez was giving Eric a giant bear hug so Jackie took it upon herself to open the trunk and pull out the one suitcase she had brought with her. Despite who she is and where she comes from, not even Jackie Burkhart could justify the burden of lugging around twelve bags for just one nights stay.

When her four friends had finally stopped their highly inappropriate public displays of affection, they followed Jackie into the airport and after wrapping a lease around Kelso to prevent him from wandering off; the diluted gang were faced with once again going their separate ways.

Not wishing to miss a moment, Donna stepped forward and held Jackie tightly, all the while whispering in her ear something that none of the guys could hear. When they reluctantly broke apart, Jackie smiled at Donna and mouthed a 'thank you', and she turned to impart wisdom on one of the luckiest men on the planet.

"Eat a pork chop, pray that Donna never leaves you, and stop buying me clothes for Christmas. It's hard to return clothes to stores you can get a rash from just being near." After her bitchy rant, Jackie smiled genuinely at him and hugged him tightly, while Eric smiled in realisation of just how much she livened up things when she was around. He had missed her.

Jackie let go of him and he gave her a playful slap on the arm and she gasped in mock offence but she still smacked him back. Eric didn't have to fake anything and he cringed in pain, despite his best efforts to hide it.

"No more hugging, you two!" she ordered. Fez and Kelso looked at their feet and pouted. Her eyes narrowed. "Well, no more long ones." Their faces immediately brightened and they launched themselves into her arms.

"Goodbye Jackie." "Bye bye."

Jackie pulled away from them and wiped the tears from her eyes, only to deal with more falling right away. "Fez, call me when you get back to New York, okay?" Fez nodded and waved her goodbye.

She prepared to lift her bag, turn around and walk away, leaving them wishing that they were coming with her. But as Jackie gazed at her first love, her first enemy, her best friend, and her confidante, she wished that she was the one staying with them and not returning to her life, no matter how 'great' it was.

"Thank you so much for coming, Jackie." Donna said.

Eric piped in. "Yeah, it was nice having someone boss me around again without the benefit of sex."

Donna slapped his arm. "Eric!"

"Huh, I think it's happening again." Eric stated.

Jackie shook her head at the couple. No-one knew just how much she relied on them to keep her faith in eternal love alive. And she had no need to ever tell anybody that. Summoning another deep breath, Jackie told them all,

"OK, you all have to leave now because if I have to watch your faces when they call my gate number, I'll never get on that plane." The group laughed and after one more round of hugs, they each gave her a sad smile and walked out of her life until the next time she was needed.

"See ya."

----------

ROAD BACK TO POINT PLACE

EL CAMINO

_Come to me for service every hundred miles.  
Baby, let me check your valves, fix your overdrive._

Talkin bout love  
Talkin bout love

Hyde belted out the lyrics of the only think he could see worth living with in this new era. An era with Led Zeppelin meant that he could do his brooding the same way he always had and he did not have to seek out new inspiration for finding methods of alienating people.

Since he had flew out of Jackie's hotel room and wandered around the neighbouring street before Jackie had a chance to tell him she was leaving, Hyde had momentarily dispelled any notion of travelling to the other side of the country to bring her home in favour of drinking and singing in his Camino. He was sure Jackie would resurface somewhere eventually and he would deal with it then, but if fate wanted to dump him in a world of confusion, he figured that an angry ex could wait a few days.

Which was why he was currently heading back to Point Place and back to the job he had apparently "dumped for yet another chance to screw up other people's happiness"? That was how W.B. had worded it just before Hyde left the hotel for good and started speeding down the near-empty highway. So now he had two disappointed father figures to contend with.

_Maybe I'll get real lucky and run into Edna_ Hyde thought.

----------

NEW YORK

ELTON RENAISSANCE GALLERY

THE NEXT DAY

Jackie unlocked the front door, stepped inside and shut the door before turning the light on and realising that her weekend plans had gone to hell. Stacked all around the foyer were several crates of paintings she had shipped from a museum in Shanghai. She hadn't expected them for another few days and she certainly hadn't expected them to clutter the entire entrance of her gallery. Sighing to herself, Jackie scrambled to find the phone and began dialling the number of her assistant. After two rings, she picked up.

"Hello?"

"Kate, I have told you time and time again that you never answer a phone without letting it ring three times because then you just look desperate for conversation."

"Which explains why upper Manhattan's newest socialite is calling up her **married** friend on a Saturday night?" The teasing in Kate's voice made Jackie wonder why she had ever hired her. Besides being qualified, friendly and unlikely to draw male attention away from her, she also had a habit of trumping any insult Jackie threw her way.

"Kate…"

Part of being that well qualified meant that she could pick up on when she had to say what her friend needed to hear.

"But you did just get back from a long trip and it would be wrong of me to leave you all alone to prepare for Monday's unveiling."

Jackie's eyes widened. "Monday's what?"

There was silence on the line for a moment.

"Oops."

"Kate!"

"I'm sorry, okay? There was just no time to tell you-"

"I was gone for two days! What was so pressing that it couldn't wait two days?"

"Don't cut me off again and I'll tell you."

"Kate…"

"Sorry again. Look, my friend at the docks heard about some paintings being transported from Mexico and that nobody had claimed them yet, so-"

"What?" Jackie exclaimed. "These are stolen paintings!"

"Okay, I thought you might react that way which is why I didn't tell you."

Jackie swore under her breath. _This is all I need today._ "So, what you are telling me is that I have an extra shipment this week to unload and that I could be arrested if I even try and sell them? I don't see that happening, Kate."

"Listen, Jackie-"

"No!" Jackie interrupted. "Kate, I like you and you do a great job of helping me run this place. But I will not sell illegal products. It's just out of the question so I want you to promise me you won't do anything like this ever again. Do you promise?"

Kate groaned. "Fine, I promise Jackie. Now what are you going to do with these?"

Jackie shrugged her shoulders. "My furnace is broken. I could always use a little extra heat."

The two girls laughed and they said their goodbyes. Jackie hung up the phone and contemplated how different the people she knew in Point Place were from the people she knew here in New York. Days like this made Jackie wonder why she even bothered building a career and starting over the way she had, when there was a group of people in another state who would welcome her home anytime.

Jackie figured she could deal with the paintings tomorrow and all she wanted was to drive home, get into her bath, watch The Golden Girls and fall asleep with Fluffycakes II. She frowned when she remembered how she lost the original Fluffycakes.

"Idiot couldn't even let my stuffed animals avoid his cruelty." Jackie muttered all the way out the door, all throughout her drive home, all throughout her bath, and all throughout Bea Arthur finding out she had a debilitating disease. Jackie's anger even seeped its way into her dreams where she imagined Hyde stranded in the ocean and she was holding out a rope for him to grab a hold of, but she kept pulling the rope back before he had a chance to grab onto it.

At least in her dreams she could claim some victory over him. No matter how short-lived her victory would be.

----------

FORMAN KITCHEN

Hyde and Kitty sat at the table, long after Red had gone to bed. Kitty had been waiting for Hyde to come home and talk ever since he had first seen Jackie, and now seemed like the best time to get him to open up. Red was asleep, Hyde would be more available, and she had just given him a cup of cocoa with two marshmallows.

"Thanks, Mrs. Forman." Hyde said as she sat the cup down in front of him. Hyde may be slightly drunk but he knew that late night cocoa meant she wanted to talk to him. And given what the last 48 hours had brought him, Hyde didn't see that as a totally horrible option.

Kitty smiled at him in her own motherly way and Hyde was thankful that she was still there for him, no matter what.

"So, did you have a nice time with all your old friends, Steven?"

Hyde nodded. "Yeah. It was cool."

"Oh, I'm sure it was groovy as heck!" Kitty stated and she started laughing as hysterically as always. Hyde smiled at her attempt to use slang.

"Everybody seems to be doing good."

Kitty's laughter stopped and she frowned at his pitying tone. "And you're doing wonderful as well! Why, you have your own business-"

"Which I got from W.B." Hyde reminded her.

"You also have a beautiful car-"

"Which I got from Leo." Hyde smiled wistfully at her attempts to cheer him up but Red's words were still ringing in his ears from the previous morning.

_Now, if you would **finally** move out and stop mooching off of us, then maybe you would get over it."_

Kitty decided to try a more direct approach. "Steven, what is it exactly that you want?"

Hyde closed his eyes and leaned back in his seat. "I want my life back," he told her honestly and Kitty smiled pityingly. Normally Hyde would have rebelled against the notion of being pitied but…_fuck it_ he thought. Even he needed a day off.

"I don't want to be this miserable before I'm even 30. It seems like just yesterday I was really happy. But now…"

"Steven," she interrupted by placing a soothing hand on top of his, "it's better to regret the things you do, than the things you don't do. If you want something, no matter how hard it may be to get back, you should always go for it."

This little pearl of wisdom made Hyde re-think his decision to leave it a few days before seeking out Jackie. "Mrs Forman, I have to go." But Hyde's romantic exit was halted by Kitty placing her hand on his arm.

"As touching as this moment is, you are not going anywhere until I fix you a plate of breakfast. Now sit!"

Hyde sat, he ate, and then he was off.

----------

NEW YORK CITY

MANHATTAN

JACKIE'S APARTMENT

Jackie was awakened by an incessant knocking on her door. She wearily climbed out of bed, wrapping a shawl around her, and she grabbed a baseball bat from behind the door. She looked through the peephole and laughed at her ridiculous pose.

"Hi Mr. Barker." Jackie greeted the elderly man and opened the door fully to allow him in. She noticed he was in his pyjamas but she also noticed he had thrown his arms around her, hugging her tightly. Jackie laughed at this action and hugged him back. "It's good to see you, Mr. Barker."

The hug broke and the older man smiled endearingly at her. "I didn't want to wake you so late but you said you would be home at 8."

"I know."

"A-And you weren't here at 8."

"I know, I got tied up at work."

"So I thought I should check on you to make sure you got home safely."

"Thank you, Mr. Barker."

"So, did you get home safely?"

"Safe as houses."

"That's good."

"That's as good as it gets, Mr. Barker. Goodnight."

"Oh, goodnight Jackie."

Jackie chuckled to herself as she watched the older man walk down to the elevator at the end of the corridor and wave at her. She waved back and closed the door, thanking whoever recommended this building for giving her such loveable neighbours. He was senile as a dog and needed to be looked after by a private nurse 24/7, but he had taking a liking to Jackie and always loved to hear about her day.

Having her sprits lifted had made Jackie forget all about her tumultuous night before and she fell asleep with a lot less murdering dreams.

----------

MOTEL OUTSIDE OF CHICAGO

Hyde had driven fast and he hadn't stopped once, even to go to the bathroom, which explained why he was currently peeing like a racehorse in the rundown bathroom of the rundown bathroom he had begrudgingly checked himself into for the night. It still amazed him how a single woman could create such an impulsive streak in him. Driving all the way from Point Place to Chicago in one night under no guarantee of success was something he never would have imagined he would do.

He decided to go straight to bed because tomorrow would probably see bruised shins, deafened ears, and a sickening amount of angst.

On the flipside, Jackie had shown herself to have considerable emotional restraint while they were in Madison and it just occurred to Hyde that she had never once called him by his name in the last day. She had called him 'you' several times but never anything else and Hyde wasn't sure if that was a good or bad thing.

Hyde smacked his cheeks. He was thinking about pointless things. What did it matter what nouns Jackie had decided to use that day? He had spent a year and a half having sex with her anywhere with a remotely sturdy surface so they were pretty much past the point of even addressing each other. 'You' could mean 'I want you right now or else you are going to have to watch me have you all by myself'. _Oh God,_ Hyde thought, _I can't start thinking about Jackie doing that to herself at my age. _Hyde swore to himself that if he didn't get Jackie back, then he would pick up a hobby because it was just sad for a guy who had nailed every slut in Point Place to revert to teenage fantasies for a good time.

_What kind of teenage fantasies could I have anyway? Jackie in a Wonder Woman costume? Jackie in a genie outfit? Jackie without a genie outfit? Jackie without anything on? Oh God…_

Maybe Hyde wouldn't go straight to bed.

----------

ELTON RENAISSANCE GALLERY

7.30AM

Jackie pulled her BMW into her private parking space and quickly pulled out her umbrella to avoid losing her carefully set hair to the rain which had gotten increasingly heavy as she drove to work. But Jackie wasn't prepared to let rain ruin her day. The 'Madison' experience was behind her, she was back in her home town where she was the queen bee, and today was going to show Steven Hyde just how much she didn't need him anymore. Even if he never saw it for himself.

Jackie realised the front door was unlocked but she relaxed when she saw Kate's car parked across the lot. Smiling, she opened the door and called out, "Kate?"

"_In here!"_ she hollered from the main office. Jackie walked across the now half-empty foyer and into her office where she saw her assistant sprucing up the place with Jackie's favourite kind of flowers.

Kate turned around and smiled widely at her, hoping that Jackie would be impressed with her efforts. "The place looks great"

"Thank you, boss." Jackie smiled and walked around the spacious room to her desk and she placed her briefcase down on it while thumbing through some papers distractedly. "You're wondering about the paintings, aren't you?"

Jackie looked up. "Well, now that you mention them…"

"Gone." Kate stated. Jackie looked confused.

"Gone? Gone where exactly?"

Kate rolled her eyes. "Well, if I tell you that then I take away the mystery of my talent, don't I?" Jackie stuck her tongue out playfully and the two women walked into the main area of the gallery where the most popular exhibits could be found. The two women began removing one set of works in preparation for the arrival of a new shipment later that afternoon. "You know," Kate started, "when I was younger, I never would have pictured myself working in a place like this."

Jackie looked at her curiously. "What, long hours, crappy pay with just me as company? What kind of girl doesn't dream of that?" Kate smirked.

"No seriously, I always thought I would meet the perfect guy-"

Jackie raised her hand. "Ah ah, let me stop you right there. Nowhere in your dreams should there be a guy. Or a prince. Or a bad boy who you think is going to make all you problems go away but instead ends up dumping all of his problems onto you, and before you know it-"

"Jackie?" Kate interrupted. Jackie stopped her rant and smiled apologetically.

"Don't dream about guys."

Kate nodded. _Someone's got a broken heart_._ This should be fun_ she thought with a sly smirk.

"What?" Jackie questioned, noticing the smirk.

"Nothing." Kate quickly replied. "Want some coffee?"

"Uh-"

"Great, I'll go get some!"

Kate bounded out of the gallery so fast that Jackie wondered if she should lock the door behind her. _But who would bring me my coffee?_ Jackie thought. Choosing caffeine over safety from crazy women, Jackie resumed her work and thought back on what she had been lecturing Kate on.

He hadn't been a bad boy, exactly. At times, he could be a good boy, a really good boy. But things happened, priorities changed, and she was no where she was and he was no where he was. And by this point, she couldn't see the use in even dwelling on when exactly things began to go wrong. For starters, she had spent the last 4 years developing this gallery from her own money and from her own talent and the exhibit she would unveil this week would hopefully put her and her business on the map for good.

Fingering a piece from a local artist, Jackie began to think about how she could expand her business without becoming some workaholic like her father. She had already gone down the road to becoming her mother and that was still something she hadn't quite recovered from. Jackie shuddered at the memories of how she spent a significant portion of her 20's going from bar to bar, from guy to guy, before she finally started listening to the right group of people and started getting her life back together.

And with a promising week ahead of her, Jackie thought of just how she could capitalise on a beautiful woman owning a hip art gallery in the heart of the city.

Television.

_To be continued…_

_----------_

**A/N: ** Ah, I am so excited about this story! I've got so many plans for it that I know you all will love to hate and be completely bewildered by. And let's start getting this crazy road under the way by reviewing this chapter. :)

Stay safe.


	4. Making Plans

**The Morning After… what?**

Chapter 4 – Making Plans.

**A/N: **Hey everybody. The reviews were amazing for the last chapter and I am glad to see new people are finding the story.

Happy reading!

**Disclaimer: **Own nothing.

----------

_**Previously…**_

_And with a promising week ahead of her, Jackie thought of just how she could capitalise on a beautiful woman owning a hip art gallery in the heart of the city._

_Television._

----------

"Television?"

Jackie nodded her head. "It just came to me while you were out getting coffee. The one thing that has kept us from getting this place firmly into the Manhattan art scene is that we don't get enough promotion!" Kate remained sceptical and began walking around the room with a cardboard box in her hand.

"I don't know, Jackie. That kind of advertising could kill our niche followers and open us up to all the wackos out there." Jackie rolled her eyes and considered this for a moment.

"Maybe you're right, Kate. But I did not open this gallery to be felt up by every private collector on the Upper East Side." Kate wrinkled her nose and put down the box to give Jackie her full attention. "And let's not forget that you are looking at a woman who once hosted her own cable-access show and who has been the subject of every man's fantasy all over the country!" Kate was surprised at seeing Jackie be so excited about this because lately Jackie hadn't gotten excited over anything. Which was why she hated herself for raining on her parade.

"Jackie-"

Jackie held up her hand to silence her. "All we need is a camera and a backdrop. After that, we can start spreading my soft porcelain skin across billboards and news stations all over America!"

Jackie began jumping up and down in excitement but Kate did not join in on the fun.

"Look," Kate began, "you're the boss here and I'm just the girl who gets the coffee, but you asked for my honest opinion and here it is." Jackie crossed her arms and fixed her eyes on Kate. "Don't let your desire to forget about some guy make you throw yourself into your work. It's really not an attractive quality in a woman."

Jackie's mouth dropped open in offence. "Excuse me? What makes you think this is about a guy?"

Kate looked at her and smiled. "Are you telling me there isn't a guy?"

"No!" Jackie retorted. "I mean… I mean…" Kate revelled in seeing her get so flustered.

"You mean what?" Kate asked jokingly.

Jackie glared at her and regained her composure. "I mean there was a guy, but he's back in Wisconsin and I never think about him," Jackie said indignantly before pursing her lips, "all that much."

Kate nodded her head. "Right, so despite the fact that before you left, you were distracted and always sneaking off and the last thing on your mind was business but now that you went back home and saw all your old friends, you want to do TV advertising? And you're telling me this is no big deal?" While Kate was biting back a knowing smile, any amusement on Jackie's face had been wiped off and it had been replaced with an impassive expression.

"I think that's enough chat for today. What do you say, we get back to work?" Jackie suggested in a 'don't mess with me' tone. Kate's amusement was gone as well and she nodded weakly before turning around and carrying a box out of the room. Jackie swore under her breath and she ran her hands through her hair in frustration.

----------

**THAT EVENING**

**GROOVES RECORDS HEADQUARTERS**

**MANHATTAN**

When Hyde saw that the stairs were being re-painted and were not to be used, he briefly wondered how in the hell he was supposed to get up to the 24th floor, better known as William Barnett's office. Hyde begrudgingly walked over to reception where he was greeted with a middle-aged woman who had a lot of similar features to Kitty. Buoyed by this odd sense of familiarity, Hyde summoned his most cordial tone and politely asked how he could reach Mr. Barnett's office.

"Take the elevator, it's over on the other side of the foyer." the receptionist said politely, pointing behind Hyde. Hyde looked behind her and his eyes bulged at the sight of two large metal contraptions. Hyde pointed weakly at them.

"Elevators?"

The receptionist stared blankly at him. "Yes, elevators. You know, things that go 'ding'." Hyde narrowed his eyes at her and wished for a moment that Jackie could inflict some of the covert bitchiness she had executed for him recently when he was having office problems with Angie.

"Thank you." Hyde turned and walked over to the elevators where he queried just how they worked. He had never trusted elevators, not even when he had begun working at the corporate Grooves offices. If God wanted people to be lifted 100ft in the air, he would have given them wings.

_A few minutes later…_

It was official.

Steven Hyde hated elevators. Not because he was afraid of them or anything, Hyde assured himself. But having a door close on one room and then open up into another was something he couldn't adapt to and as he felt himself being lifted up the two dozen floors of the building, with his shades firmly intact, Hyde wondered just what it would take to make one of these things drop and crash into the ground. And the sound of a bell ringing, the 'ding' the receptionist had so helpfully told him about, followed by the elevator coming to a sudden halt, didn't help to ease any of his concerns. But when the doors slid open and when people began milling in and out faster than the Apollo Rocket of Love, Hyde vowed that he would scale down the building walls if he had to, because there wasn't a chance in hell of him going through that again.

He quickly stepped out and onto the floor and let out a sigh of relief when he felt solid ground beneath him. Hyde saw that this floor was decorated in bright, techno colours and he wondered just how much the '80s had corrupted W.B. Shrugging it off, Hyde walked along the long corridor, taking the time to appreciate the high calibre of musical acts that W.B. had been photographed with, many of whom he didn't recognise.

Hyde opened the door leading to his office and he noticed that the waiting area was still quite similar to the one he had sat in a few months earlier in Milwaukee. He walked over to the receptionist, hoping that this one would have a bit more tolerance.

"I'm here to see William Barnett."

"And who, may I ask, are you?" the receptionist asked shortly.

_So much for that theory_. Hyde smiled slightly. "Tell him it's his son." The receptionist let out a small snort.

"Yeah, nice try pal. And I'm Whitney Houston's long lost brother."

"Who?" Hyde asked but he was in no mood to deal with useless trivia. "Look, can you just tell him Steven Hyde is here to see him?"

The receptionist stared at him before finally picking up the phone and connecting through to the main office.

"Hello, sir...Yes, there is no problem but I have someone here to see you who doesn't have an appointment……….He says his name is Steven Hyde………Sir? Sir?"

He put the phone back down and stared at Hyde quizzically. Just then, the office down swung open and out came the man of the hour, his face beaming with excitement.

"Son!" Hyde was stunned when W.B. threw his arms around Hyde and engulfed him in a giant bear hug, to which he barely reciprocated. "It is so good to see you, Steven." W.B. pulled back from the hug but kept a firm grip on Hyde's arms. "Dennis, hold my calls."

"Dennis…" Hyde muttered in amazement. The pair stepped into his office and Hyde immediately asked, "Why doesn't Dennis remember me?"

"Oh, well a deep depression combined with a spell of stealing narcotics can do wonders for a man's mind." Hyde smirked. "So…" W.B. started nervously, "what brings you here today?"

Hyde cleared his throat and sat down on the chair across from W.B. "Well, I was thinking that it was time I come check out the New York nightlife."

W.B. nodded in confusion. "OK…"

"And you know, I thought that maybe I could get a job here or something." A slow smile spread across W.B's face.

"You want to move to New York?"

Hyde grinned. "Well, as much of a hotspot as Point Place is, I'm thinking it's time for a change of pace." Hyde cocked his head. "What do you think of that?" he asked his father.

"I think it's great, son!" W.B. stated emphatically. "To be honest, I'm surprised you stayed in that town for as long as you did but you're always welcome to rejoin the corporate world. God know, I need someone to take over when I kick the bucket."

The pair laughed before Hyde asked, "But what about Angie? Surely she is the one wanting for the keys to the castle."

"No, I think motherhood has softened her capitalist ambitions." W.B. told him with a disappointed sigh. _Angie's a mom?_ Hyde thought in disbelief. "I guess her and Kelso never made it," he muttered.

"What's that, son?"

Hyde snapped out of his daze. "Huh? Oh, nothing." Hyde cleared his throat and began walking around the office again. "So about this job?"

"Oh, whatever you want, Steven. I'll tell you what. Go home, think over your plans and let me know where you want to be." W.B. laughed. "After all, Grooves is more than just a chain of record stores now."

"It is?" Hyde questioned. Off W.B's look he corrected himself, "Of course it is."

----------

**24 HOURS LATER**

**PERZITO'S RESTAURANT**

"Fezzie!"

The two old friends hugged and laughed as they embraced in the cosy little Italian restaurant they had claimed as their official hangout. "Ah, Jackie. It has been so long!"

Jackie looked at him quizzically. "Fez, we saw each other less than 72 hours ago."

Fez nodded. "Yes, I am aware of that, you walking clock." Jackie gasped in offence. "I mean, you sapphire Gucci wrist accessory."

"Better." Jackie stated happily. They sat at their usual booth at the back of the restaurant and began catching each other up on what they had missed.

"…so then, I open the door and what do I see? About a million crates full of illegally claimed paintings, that's what!" Fez's mouth dropped open and he narrowed his eyes.

"That little minx has threatened your business. She must die." Fez stated gravely, but Jackie started laughing hysterically.

"Oh Fez, I missed our little lunches when we were in Madison."

"Yes," Fez said in agreement, "you are simply too unstable a woman to go without emotional support while inhaling a salad." Jackie glared at him.

"And you are too mouthy a foreigner not to have this cappuccino dumped over your head." Fez smiled nervously at Jackie's threat.

"No, no. You don't need to do that again." Fez cleared his throat and with one unspoken subject still clouding their get-together, he was thankful for having the day off. "So, how does it feel to be back? I know I was about to die from not having a Bloomingdales at my feet." Fez grimaced. Jackie thought about his question for a minute.

"It's good but I really miss the guys, you know?" Fez nodded. "And it just reminds me that I had more of a social life in that Amish state than I do in the most alive city in the world." Fez nodded again.

"And it also reminded you that the love of your life is still single and pining after you while you haven't gotten any in over a year!"

"Fez!" Jackie shouted in embarrassment.

Fez rolled his eyes in frustration. "Well, I'm sorry sweet pea, but you cannot expect me to not bring Hyde into our conversation. Especially since you two just had sex." Fez told her, whispering the last part.

Jackie groaned. "For the last time, Steven and I did nothing in that room but sleep."

"Oh Jackie, who are you kidding. You couldn't even be left alone in a basement for 5 minutes without him taking you to the prom."

Jackie knew that Fez was mostly teasing her, but she also knew that he wasn't going to stop fishing for information until she divulged every little detail of their night together. "Alright, you wanna know what happened?" Fez leaned in closer and nodded quickly. "We had _a lot_ to drink…"

"Yes…" Fez urged her own with a leer.

"And we flirted a little…"

"Yes…"

"And then we were back in my room…"

"Yes…" Fez said, growing more excited.

"And then we threw up."

"Ooh" Fez cringed.

Jackie laughed at him. "Fez, we were drunk! We threw up and went to sleep. End of story."

Fez sat back defeated. "So, you two aren't getting back together?"

Jackie shook her head sadly. "No, Fez. We have separate lives now. I live in New York. Steven lives in Point Place. We're just not in the same place anymore."

The pair ate quietly for the next few minutes before Jackie spoke up, "Hey! I completely forgot you had a date last night. How did it go?"

Fez rolled his eyes. "Terrible. She ate my food and then hooked up with another guy."

"Oh Fez…" Jackie said, rubbing his hand.

"In my living room!" Fez exclaimed. "It was the pizza delivery guy. I left the money and went to the bathroom. When I came back, they were playing leapfrog on my couch."

Jackie threw a hand over her mouth and squeezed her side to quench any laughter that was bursting to be released. Fez glared and stared at her.

"What, you have never played leapfrog?"

----------

**FEZ'S PENTHOUSE**

**THAT EVENING**

"Hmmph." Fez shut of his television and flopped down on his couch. He was bored and there was nothing on TV or in the fridge. "Well, that's what you get when you binge eat after watching your date have sex with the pizza guy on your couch."

Fez looked around and settled for getting some work done. He walked over to his coffee table and lifted off the thick folder, labelled "Book of St. George." Fez smirked at his boss's last advertising campaign which she launched after finding God. "More like after finding Zod. Crazy bitch."

After a solid 25 seconds of thumbing through pages and making observant noises, Fez thought back on his earlier conversation with Jackie. Unlike the rest of his friends, Fez had no doubt that Jackie and Hyde had not failed because they expected different things from each other. He believed it was because they were too immature back then, but that now Jackie was not dependent on anybody and that Hyde was such an emotional train wreck that he probably didn't have enough brain cells left to even argue with her. That would at least explain why things had been so calm between the two of them that weekend. And if Fez could reconcile them once, he could do it again.

"Who can I call? Who can I call?" Fez wondered aloud. Eric was out of the question and Kelso was never reachable, so he settled on Donna. "Lord knows, the woman has been dumped enough times…" Fez muttered while dialling her number in Madison.

"Hello?"

Fez smiled at the sound of the blonde's voice. "Donna, it is me."

"Fez?" Fez scoffed.

"No, Ricky Ricardo. Of course it is Fez!"

"Jeez, sorry. What's up?"

"Well Donna," Fez started more calmly, "I come to you with a dream. A dream of love, a dream of hope, a dream of-"

"Fez, if you don't hurry up, you're gonna be having this conversation in your dreams. Now what is it?"

Fez huffed. "Fine, you want it that way? Here is the truth. I want to reunite Jackie and Hyde."

Donna groaned. "Oh Fez, no! I just…I can't… again?"

"Yes, Donna. Again. And I need your help to do it."

"Well, you definitely have the part right about needing help." Fez shrieked. "Sorry. What's brought this on anyway?"

"Jackie. She is still not over him." Fez stated.

"She told you this?" Donna asked, surprised that her best friend would admit to the obvious.

"Well…"

Donna sighed. "Then, don't go there, Fez."

"But Donna!" Fez tried. "You did not see Jackie's face today when I mentioned Hyde! She-"

"Fez, look. They both screwed up that marriage. Jackie left him because she didn't want to be with him anymore and even if there was the tiniest chance that she still felt something for him, you know that Hyde is way too proud to take her back. Just let it go. We already lost Hyde for three years because of it. I don't want to lose Jackie too."

Fez sighed, defeated. She was right, as always. "I hate this."

"Me too. Look, I wish things had worked out differently but they didn't so I really don't think we should dredge up the past." Back in her house, Donna smiled regretfully and told him she would call him in the morning. She put the receiver down and rubbed her stomach lovingly. "You don't want to lose your aunt now, do you?"

----------

**PLAZA HOTEL**

**PENTHOUSE**

Whoever said money doesn't buy happiness, obviously hadn't had their millionaire black father handover his temporarily rented out penthouse suite at one of the top hotels in the world given to them after having been shown the 5 easy steps to destroying their life. Step number 1 – alienating your friends and family. And now Hyde was in the position to reverse it.

Starting tomorrow, he would be in full-time employment in a building only 4 blocks away from Jackie's business and would be able to dump his workload onto his assistant so that he could spy on her all day long, although no in some creepy, stalker way, Hyde assured himself. Writing down her every move, taking photos of her and fantasising showing her and the torch of Lady Liberty a good time were not the actions of a stalker. They were the actions of a determined Steven Hyde. But with another 7 hours before the plan was put into action, Hyde decided to scope out his new residence, passing comment on each item.

King size bed. _Impressive._ Mini-bar. _It is New York, after all._ Giant-ass TV. _What the hell?_ Big, black machine. _VHS? Sounds like a disease._

Hyde gave up and decided that '80s technology had no effect on him, whatsoever. What he had yet to check out though, was just how _special_ the '80s could be.

----------

**30 MINUTES LATER**

Hyde: _(laughing through the smoke) _Yep, still pretty damn special.

----------

**7.30AM**

**CHRISTINE ST. GEORGES OFFICE**

"Come in!" Christine hollered. The door opened and Fez walked in with a sheepish smile.

"Hello, Ms George. You look lovely today."

"That's a load of crap and you know it." Christine told him.

Fez nodded. "Yes, yes it is."

"WHAT?" Christine shouted.

Fez panicked. "Um…um… you… um… wanted to see me?"

Christine narrowed her eyes. "Shut the door and sit down." Fez quickly did both and sat facing her withered gecko of a face. "I had a very interesting phone call this morning from an old employee of mine. A… Jackie Burkhart." Fez eyes widened.

"Jackie called you?" Christine nodded.

"Yes, she did. And she asked that I give her a weekly spot on my show where she can promote her art gallery because my show needs more beauty. It was such an odd conversation." Christine spoke so calmly and gently that Fez was about ready to duck and cover for the inevitable explosion.

"Ms. George…"

"And, then I asked," she said, interrupting Fez, "why on earth would I do such a thing. And you know what she told me?"

Fez laughed nervously. "What?"

"She told me I would do it because of you. Because, you are a very close friend of hers and that she taught you everything you know about hair. As a matter of fact, she told me that if it wasn't for her, you never would have become my hair stylist in the first place."

_Uh oh_ Fez thought.

Christine continued, "So I decided that since she was responsible for you getting this job, it would be gracious for me to grant her this one request."

Fez smiled widely. "Really Ms. George? Oh, that is wonderful-"

Christine raised a hand to silence him. "Let me finish. The condition is that if after her first spot, my ratings drop by even a _fractio_n of a point, you are out of here. So, I suggest you tell her to make her appearance _very _memorable." Fez gulped. "That will be all, Mr. Fez."

Fez slowly rose from the chair and left her office, seething. Oh, lunch couldn't come soon enough.

----------

**9.15AM**

**GROOVES RECORD STORE**

Hyde had to admit he was impressed by the size and style of this part of the chain. The whole store was buzzing with activity but the customers looked ready to declare all-out war on anybody that even tried to push ahead of them. He had seen quite a bit of this rude behaviour in the entire 24 hours he had been in the city and it already provided him with a sense of belonging.

He pushed his way through the crowd and made his way towards the cash register, where he asked to see the manager. After getting directions and being elbowed by an elderly woman with a walker for a Judas Priest CD, Hyde declared that he loved New York. Rude people, lots of money to be made, and even the old people had the same taste in music as him.

Hyde knocked on the office door and walked in before getting a reply. He saw a plump, balding man chomping on a turkey baguette and using his star-shaped paper weight to scratch… down there. "You Howard Field?" Hyde asked.

"Yeah," came the man's muffled reply. "Who's asking?"

Hyde smiled and stepped forward. "Steven Hyde. Your new boss." Howard began choking on his baguette and Hyde smacked him on the back, sending the small piece of turkey flying onto the desk.

"Thanks." Howard stood and cleared his throat. "Mr. Hyde… oh, yes. You're Barnett's son, right?" Hyde nodded. "Well, I don't care who your daddy is but I won't let any New York slickster tell me how to run this-"

Hyde cut him off. "While you were probably having a gastric bypass and a wank, I was running another part of this chain single-handedly and having sex with my 95lb cheerleader girlfriend. So believe me when I tell you, Howie, that I have a lot more experience than you." Hyde leaned into the man. "In both areas. Any questions?"

Hyde didn't know that it was possible for a man to sweat so much in less than a minute, but then again, he hadn't been this close to a fat man since Bob had fallen on top of him after a heavy night of drinking.

"No, sir." Howard stated quickly. Hyde smiled.

"Good. Now get out of my office." Howard stumbled away from the desk, picked up the remains of his baguette and scampered out of the office. Hyde smiled to himself and sat down in the chair, swinging his feet up onto the desk while he heard his workers handling the barrage of questions customers were firing their way.

Hyde hoped that his plan would work because right now, he didn't have one. Getting a job and a place to stay had been far too easy and now he was at a loss about where to go from here.

----------

**12.05PM**

**PERZITO'S RESTAURANT**

Fez swung open the door and strode in to the busy restaurant and frowned when nobody paid attention to his dramatic entrance. He cleared his throat, acknowledging that it was only one woman who should be afraid of him today. He walked over to their regular booth and saw that Jackie had only just arrived herself. Upon seeing her, he straightened his posture and was about to make an intimidating arrival when he tripped on his shoe lace, knocked over a waitress and sent a stack of plates smashing into the wall. Now, there was plenty of attention on Fez. Seething, he stood up and dusted off his sleeves and pants. "Oops." Fez limped over to his table and buried his face in the menu, hoping to avoid the stares of half the restaurant. Jackie smiled at his pose and reached out to pull the menu away from his face but he wouldn't budge.

"Fez, some on. Nobody is even looking at you."

Fez looked up at her. "Really?" She nodded and he peered over the booth and saw that most of the customers had went back to their own business. "Fine, but you are still not forgiven." Fez told her with a shake of a finger.

Jackie looked confused. "What do you mean, I'm not forgiven? Why do I need your forgiveness?" Fez slammed his menu down on the table and Jackie jumped. She rarely saw this side of him and it unnerved her every time it showed.

"I will tell you why. Christine is going to fire me if you are not a success! Hmmph!" Jackie's mouth dropped open.

"Oh my God, Fez. I'm so sorry! What happened"

Fez rolled his eyes. "Well, it could have been the fact that you went behind my back and called your ex-boss who is now my boss and asked her for a favour! Or it could have been that you told her that I learned everything I know from you! Or perhaps, it was that you told her that her show needed more beauty in it!" Jackie smiled sheepishly. "What the hell were you thinking, Jackie?" Fez exclaimed quietly.

Jackie shrugged her shoulders. "I thought that since I had a history with her-"

"She fired you!" Fez reminded her. Jackie glared.

"Yes Fez, I remember, thank you. Anyway, I thought since I had a history with her where she opened up to me, and since you and I are so close and you and her are so close, she might show some kindness and help me out."

"Well clearly, it didn't work." Fez huffed. He sat back in his seat and folded his arms. "Now I am going to get fired."

Jackie shook her head. "No, Fez. Listen to me. My spot will be so successful that Christine will be promoting you, not firing you!"

Fez looked at her hopefully. "You think?" Jackie smirked at him.

"I'm Jackie Burkhart. I don't think, I know." He relented and made peace with her. Within 5 minutes, the pair had fallen back into their habit of teasing and conspiring on which government officials were sleeping together.

----------

**AN HOUR AND A HALF LATER**

**OUTSIDE THE ELTON RENAISSANCE GALLERY**

One of the perks about being her own boss was that Jackie could take an extended lunch break when need be, and when she had needed to visit a store a few blocks away, she was thankful for this perk.

She made her way along the street full of successful companies and thought that soon enough, her gallery would join that club. She opened up her purse, pulled out her compact mirror and checked herself over for what must have been the 7th time in the last half hour. As she walked, she was too preoccupied to watch where she was going and was surprised when she bumped in a guy without realising, making him drop his food. She turned around and saw the state of the man.

"Oh my God, I am so, so sorry!" She pulled out a handkerchief from her purse and wiped off the meat from the man's shirt. "I was in a hurry and I didn't see…" She trailed off when she saw the man's face. "Hey, I know you, don't I?"

The man looked at her and laughed. "Well, you probably know my daughter a lot better considering she works for you." Jackie's eyes widened in understanding.

"Of course! You're Kate's dad!" Jackie smiled and shook the man's hand. "How are you?"

The man's smile was replaced with a frown. "Not too good actually. I got fired today."

Jackie looked at him pityingly. "Oh, I'm sorry. Let me guess, your boss is an ass?"

He nodded. "Yep. **3 years**, I have been running that store but as soon as the boss' jackass son shows up, I'm shoved aside to work in the storeroom." Jackie shook her head in disbelief. "And I tried to stick it out, but the guy told me that if I wasn't going to do the job, then I wouldn't have one. So here I am."

Jackie grabbed the man's arm. "Look, come inside and I'll make you some coffee and you can talk to Kate. I'm sure she'd like to see you." He looked at her, unsure.

"I don't know. Kate and I don't talk that much."

Jackie nodded her head. "That would explain why she never talks about you. Sorry." He chuckled.

The pair walked the last few hundred yards to the gallery and just as they were approaching the door, Jackie asked, "So, where did you say you worked?"

He held the door open for her and told her, "Grooves Records. Just a few blocks away." Jackie stopped dead in her tracks._ He's here._

"What is it?" he asked, concerned.

Jackie let out a small laugh. "So, this boss who has a son. His name wouldn't by any chance be William Barnett, wouldn't it?"

He looked at her surprised. "Yeah. You friends with him?" Jackie ran her hands through her hair.

"And the boss' son. Curly hair, wears sunglasses inside?"

The man looked stunned. "You know the jackass?"

Jackie looked at him. "I married the jackass."

_To be continued…_

_----------_

**A/N: **OK, so they are in the same city now which means that Jackie and Hyde will be seeing a lot more of each other. I know you all want to see them confront each other but all in good time.

Stay safe.


	5. Remembrance

**The Morning After… what?**

Chapter 5 – Remembrance.

**A/N: **Hey everybody. Sorry if you feel this has been moving slowly but I feel like I pretty much sped through a lot of the key moments in my last series so this chapter is devoted to exploring a lot of the mystery behind Jackie and Hyde's relationship. Thank you again for the reviews (you all manage to find new ways of making me happy in them) and I hope you enjoy this.

Happy reading!

**Disclaimer: **Own nothing.

_**Previously…**_

"_And the boss' son. Curly hair, wears sunglasses inside?"_

_The man looked stunned. "You know the jackass?"_

_Jackie looked at him. "I married the jackass."_

**4.00PM**

**GROOVES RECORDS**

Resting the phone between his cheek and his left shoulder, Hyde tapped his fingers distractedly on the wooden table and his eyes followed the path of a spider on the ceiling as he waited for somebody to pick up. After two more rings, he heard a click and some heavy breathing in the background.

"_What do you want?"_ snapped the person on the other end. Hyde blinked in surprise at the short tone.

"Uh, it's me. Just calling to check in."

Then came the laughter. _"Oh, Steven!"_ Hyde smiled as Mrs Forman's voice instantly changed from irate to loving. _"It is so good to hear from you! How is New York treating you? I hear the people there don't even welcome new people with a pie! But I'm sure that's just a horror story aimed to scare people into leaving the woman who fed them and clothed them and cared for them, when nobody else would! And what thanks do I get? None! You all left me!"_

Kitty began crying and slammed the phone down, while Hyde slowly placed the phone back in its cradle, contemplating whether or not Kitty Forman had officially cracked. But he needed to talk so, fearfully, he picked up the receiver and began dialling the number again.

"_Hello?"_ This time her voice was as chipper and welcoming as it had always been and Hyde gathered that she had dipped into her emergency stash in the 10 seconds between calls.

"Hey, Mrs Forman. It's me again."

"_Oh… Steven, did I yell at you? Sweetie, I'm sorry but Red and I haven't had intercourse in 3-"_

"Mrs Forman!" Hyde interrupted in horror. "For God's sake, never talk to me about that!"

"_Oh!"_ Kitty laughed nervously and Hyde felt his heart rate begin to return to normal. _"Well, I guess that's fair. After all, I shouldn't be exposing you to the natures of the birds and the bees. You can find that out all on your own on your wedding night!"_

Hyde grinned at the woman's naivety. "Actually, Mrs. Forman, I have-"

"_I can't hear you," _she sing-songed.

"Mrs. Forman, I need to talk to you about something."

"_Is it about Jackie?"_

"Yeah…"

"_Have you still not seen her?"_

"Yeah…"

"_Are you afraid to see her?"_

"Yeah…"

"_Are you-"_

Hyde rolled his eyes. "Mrs Forman, this could go on for a while. I just wanted to know how I should go about doing this. I mean, we both know Jackie only likes surprised that she can unwrap." Hyde grinned at the memory of when she had convinced him into wearing a silver bow to bed which she quickly unwrapped from him, among other things. Hyde grimaced as he realised he was getting turned on while talking to an old woman. "So," Hyde cleared his throat, "any suggestions?"

Kitty was silent on the other end for a moment as she mentally vetoed every plan that came to mind. _"Hmmm, well with Eric, all he had to do was stop breaking up with Donna and she would be happy. I love my son, Steven but he changes his mind about that girl about as often as Midge changes her hair colour." _ Hyde dropped his head on the table and, in a muffled voice, said,

"Mrs Forman, can we please talk about me and Jackie?" _I am officially the world's biggest pansy_.

"_OK, I'll stop getting sidetracked. Tell me; how Jackie got you to forgive her every time she made a mistake?"_

Hyde thought for a moment about how to answer that question without breaking the woman's heart. "Well…"

"_OK, that's enough,"_ Kitty said, quickly cutting him off. He smirked as he remembered the Christmas dance in her cheerleading outfit, the late-night visit to his office after she kept spying on him and W.B, and every other time she had used her body to have her way with him. And for anybody who had ever seen Jackie, they would agree with Hyde that she could have sex with another guy right in front of them and all she had to do was shake her ass and they would be putty in her hands again. _"Steven, have you ever considered trying to be just friends with Jackie?_"

Hyde frowned. "Mrs Forman, have you seen Jackie? She's the reason the 1978 Point Place High yearbooks had the stickiest pages in history. So, no. I can't be just friends with her."

"_You know, Steven, the more you say things like that the more I can't pretend I don't know what you mean. Now what do you say?"_

Hyde rolled his eyes in frustration. He may not know how he ended up here, but he knew that Kitty Forman would still be the same. "Baby Jesus is still watching me and I shouldn't do anything to destroy his spirit."

"_Yay!"_ Hyde swore he heard Kitty clapping over the phone. _"You see, Steven? I knew you were still a good boy. I never agreed with everyone else that you had wasted the last 5 years of your life." _Hyde rubbed his eyes tiredly. He was tired of everybody pointing out that he had screwed up his life.

"Thank you." Hyde looked at the scattered papers all around his table and absentmindedly began sifting through them, stopping when he saw a flyer for a show at an art gallery later in the week. Bewildered, he picked it up and realised that luck had finally landed on his side. "Mrs Forman, I gotta go."

"_But Steven-"_

Back in Point Place, Kitty stopped talking when she realised he had hung up the phone. "I didn't even get to tell you my plan," she huffed.

**PERZITO'S RESTAURANT**

**8.00PM**

Fez grinned at her. "And how is my lovely lady this evening?" His date looked up from her menu long enough to dazzle him with teeth that would make Donny Osmond jealous.

"Better, now that I'm on a date with you," she cheekily replied. Fez chuckled and the pair leaned in to kiss when he suddenly pulled back and frowned.

"Oh, I'm sorry. You are a beautiful woman but garlic bread? Big no-no," Fez told her. She rolled here eyes and excused herself to go to the bathroom. Fez instinctively began playing army with the cutlery and was surprised when he heard someone sit down on the seat. "Wow. That sure didn't take…" Fez trailed off when he saw that it wasn't his date who had sat down at the table. It was… "Jackie?"

She sat with her head in her hands and her hair was looking wilder than he could ever recall having seen it. This meant that it was guy troubles. And considering this was Jackie, that meant it was Hyde problems. "He's here," Jackie groaned. His eyes bulged. He certainly hadn't been expecting that.

"He… what?"

Jackie lifted her head and glared at him. "He's in New York, Fez. Manhattan to be precise! But four blocks away from my office, to be really precise." Jackie dropped her head back in her hands. "Oh, what am I gonna do?"

At any other time, such as everyday for the last three years, Fez would have welcomed the chance to discuss Jackie and Hyde's relationship. But this was the first date he had gotten in months where he hadn't been stood up or been a victim of took-one-look-at-him-and-left, and he was determined not to add to that sickeningly growing list of women who he failed to romance.

Fez smiled at her. "Jackie, you are very tense right now-"

"You think!" Jackie exclaimed. Fez narrowed his eyes at her for cutting him off.

"And! You should go home, take a nice bath and worry about this in the morning. Can you please do that for me?"

Jackie groaned. "But Fez-"

"I said 'for me'!"

Rather than giving herself a headache by continuing this conversation, Jackie reluctantly picked up her purse and walked off without saying goodbye. Annoying thing about best friends; they always had the right advice, but it was never the one you wanted to hear.

Back at the table, Fez felt sorry for brushing her off like that but he figured that if he could spend his formative years with everybody ignoring his problems in order to deal with their romantic angst, he could certainly take care of his own needs for one night.

Or if he played his cards right, have somebody else to take care of them for him.

----------

**JACKIE'S APARTMENT**

**9.00PM**

The door swung open and Jackie dragged her only alternative source of venting into her apartment. Kate was tired of being dragged through her apartment, down the stairs, out into the cab which took them across town, and finally up to her friend's apartment.

"Alright, alright. Quit yanking my arm!" Kate managed to unwrap Jackie's clenched hand from her arm and she sat on the couch. "What's the big emergency?"

Jackie began nervously pacing her small kitchen and turned towards her sharply. "Before I begin, do you need to talk about anything?"

Kate shrugged her shoulders. "Well lately I've been feeling-"

"OK, great! Now, let's talk about me!" Jackie exclaimed and she flopped down beside her. "My ex-husband is in town."

Kate quickly got interested. "Ooh, Miss Burkhart does have a past after all." Jackie rolled her eyes but Kate pressed for information. "So, tell me what happened?"

"Short story?" Kate nodded eagerly, and Jackie took a deep breath. "We dated, we broke up, we dated again, we broke up again… I think you see where I'm going with this," Jackie drawled and Kate grinned. "Anyway, we got back together again and everything was going _really_ well, so after a while we decided to get married. And we were happy," Jackie stated emphatically, "at first," she finished, not-so emphatically. Jackie cleared her throat. "_Anyway, _after a while I realised that it just wasn't gonna work out, so… I left." Jackie nodded subconsciously, as if trying to re-affirm her belief that she made the right decision. "But to get to the point of this supposedly short story," they both laughed, "we split up and went our separate ways and I thought that was the end of the road for us. But then we kinda ran into each other in Madison last week." Kate's eyes widened in realisation.

"Ohhhh, so that's what happened!" Jackie nodded. Kate was a little confused, though. "But, this isn't exactly Walnut Grove and the two of you don't exactly run in the same social circles here, so what's the problem?"

"The problem… is that he is working at Grooves now."

Kate looked confused for a moment but the light went off in her head. "Oh, you mean that cool record store a… few blocks away…" Now that they were on the same page, Jackie began unleashing her worry.

She stood up from the couch and began pacing again. "And I know that he is going to just mess everything up! Everything I have worked for, all out of a wounded ego. I mean, it is not my fault that he left me with no choice but to leave him! Dumbass would have drunk himself into oblivion if I hadn't given him another chance," Jackie finished in a mutter. Kate stood up and grasped her friend by the shoulders, sensing that this was going to be a very girly night.

"Listen," Jackie looked at her dejectedly, "this guy can't be all that bad if he managed to get you to go out with him in the first place!" Jackie laughed at this remark. Kate's eyes hardened. "Wait just a second!" Now it was her turn to pace. "You say he works at Grooves?" Jackie nodded fearfully. "And that he just started?" Jackie nodded again. "That means he fired my dad! Oh, it's on baby!" Jackie stepped forward and now she was the one grasping shoulders.

"Kate! We really only have time for one female meltdown tonight. Can we_ please_ focus on me, because let's face it; I am a lot more interesting," Jackie stated matter-of-factly. Kate huffed and sat back down. Suddenly an idea struck her and she turned towards Jackie.

"Hey, I know how we can find out this guy's agenda," Jackie looked intrigued. "He fired my dad, right? So I can just go there and demand he give him his job back-"

"Which he'd never do," Jackie informed her.

Kate waved her off. "But the point is that I can get him to start talking to me about what his plans are for the two of you! It's genius!" Kate clapped her hands excitedly but Jackie remained unconvinced.

"OK sweetie, I admire your confidence but if there is one thing I know about Steven, it is that he has an outstanding ability to make you fearful of his true emotions. I have a feeling he isn't going to spill his heart to you." Kate grinned at her.

"You really think so? Well then, you clearly haven't had a best friend to help you out with your guy before, because Jackie, this boy is going down."

Jackie felt a whole lot better for confiding in her. While the two had worked together for some time, they had never really developed a bond outside of the gallery even though Jackie was lacking in female friends. All she really had was Donna but a phone call once a week was not the same as debating Eric and Hyde on the porch while the guys gave each other wedgies playing basketball.

About a half hour later, Jackie had relaxed enough to let Kate have her say on what had been bothering her lately. But a 27 year old single girl in Manhattan only concerned herself with two things; men and her career. So after Jackie had promised her a raise and an attractive assistant's assistant, Kate poured them each a glass of white wine and she turned the attention back onto her friend's failed marriage. "So, tell me all about this Steven guy." 

"Hyde," Jackie corrected her. Kate looked at her, confused. "Honestly, I don't get it. 'Hyde' just reminds me of Jekyll and that reminds me of when the kindergarten kids would tease me,"

"Awww," Kate rubbed her arm affectionately. "Ok then, tell me all about this _Hyde_ or whatever." Jackie laughed.

"Where exactly do you want me to start?"

"Well, I don't want to know when his first hard-on was-"

"Kate!" Jackie admonished. Kate laughed and pointed to her wine glass, resulting in them both laughing on the floor.

Kate regained her composure first. "I wanna know about the two of you! I know far too little about this relationship. And don't skimp out on me with the short story this time!"

Jackie laughed again. "So you wanna know everything?" she asked.

Kate nodded. "Down to every last kissing-his-photo before you go to sleep." Jackie let out a deep breath.

"Then you are gonna love this." Jackie took a moment before continuing, deciding that it was finally time to relive this period in her life. Especially since she didn't appear to have a choice in the matter. "Well, this goes back to the spring of '77. You see, prom was coming up…"

----------

**2 HOURS LATER**

They were both laughing so hard, that they were gasping for air.

"So, he just let you fall in?" Kate asked disbelievingly.

Jackie wiped her eyes. "Yeah, well. If you had seen us at that point, then you would understand."

Kate laughed. "Look, I don't care how bad it was. If a guy ever walked away and left me after I fell into a pond, he would suffer eternal punishment!"

Jackie grinned. "Oh, he did. A week later he grew a porn moustache." They burst out laughing. "Pretty much killed any leftover attraction towards him."

After struggling to regain her breath for the twentieth time that night, Kate tried to digest the torrent of information Jackie had delivered. "So let me see if I've got this straight. In the two years you two dated, there was a stripper, a nurse, a biker chick and a girl he wanted to touch his hair? Why didn't you just put a sign on him saying, 'Too horny to live'?"

Jackie chuckled to herself, amazed at how good it felt to be able to **finally** look back at the trainwreck she called a relationship, and actually laugh at the events that had driven her to despair. "OK, but to be fair, those things tended to happen when I had done something to make him mad."

Kate snorted. "So what? Don't tell me the poor little baby went and threw a tantrum because he didn't have big enough balls to confront you about it? Speaking of…"

Jackie waved her hand. "Oh, he was fully equipped in that department." Kate raised her eyebrows suggestively.

"Really…"

Jackie leaned in. "He married a stripper over me." Jackie leaned back and Kate didn't look quite so interested.

"OK, you killed him for me." Jackie grinned and took a sip from her glass, proud of herself. Kate glanced at the clock and noted that it was getting late. "Well, we have been sitting here talking about how two bad childhoods created one of the most neurotic couples in American history, but we haven't even gotten to **the marriage!**" Jackie laughed and rolled her eyes. "Oh, come on!" Kate lightly slapped her arm, "Everybody is dying to know what happened." Jackie raised her eyebrows. "OK, so not everybody, but…" Jackie grinned and took another sip of wine. She wasn't sure if she had the stomach to talk about this. And that wasn't just because they were onto their third bottle of wine.

She leaned forward in her seat and refilled her glass, knowing that she was going to need serious intoxication if she was going to get through this. She sat back and rested the glass on her thighs, fingering the rim with both her hands. "So you wanna know about the marriage." Kate nodded enthusiastically. Jackie let out yet another deep breath and began,

"Well after Fez and I had been together for a few months, I began spending more and more time with him and Steven in the basement. You see, after Michael and Eric left and after Sam came, it just wasn't my place to be anymore, you know?" Kate nodded sadly. "But then Donna left to go to Madison and Eric went back with her so Fez convinced me that I had to at least be there for Steven because as the facts stood; I was his oldest friend. And that was a frightening thought." Kate laughed quietly. "And wouldn't you know it, Steven and I actually began to get along. Now, in all the time we knew each other I could never recall us ever getting along. Even when we were dating, it was one argument after another. And we eventually started talking again. About me mostly." The pair laughed. "But you know, Fez got more and more popular at the salon and by summertime he was getting offered jobs as home stylists. But he kept saying no. That he didn't want to take me for granted. Which was sweet, don't get me wrong. But whenever he would work late, I would talk with Steven and I didn't really miss Fez. I think that's when I knew for sure…"

"That you were meant to be with Ste-Hyde?"

Jackie looked at her. "That I wasn't meant to be with Fez. I know, shocker! We were supposed to be perfect for each other, but I… I wasn't even sad when he told me Christine St. George had offered him a job on her show and it had the possibility of transferring him to New York. Yeah, it was sad to lose one of my oldest friends but it felt OK. Like I didn't need him anymore. So we both decided that it was better for us to be apart and that was that. He left and after a while we were able to get back some of our friendship. He still likes to rub it in from time to time that even I couldn't resist his charms." Kate laughed softly. "And when he left, it was like 'OK Jackie, you went from one guy to another to another, and now you've ran out of options. I mean I was seriously going to take Steven up on his suggestion of the garden gnome across the street! But the next thing I knew, it was Christmas and I was going to community college and not even worrying about not having a guy. And of course that's when it happened…"

Kate sat up in her seat. "Here we go." Jackie laughed despite herself, amazed that her friend still had interest in this story.

"Everybody came home at Christmas and we all had a great time. No fights, no break-ups and we all went home happy. But… on New Year's Eve things started to change. It was obvious that Steven and I were pretty much dating without the benefit of touching. We would spend almost every night together. I would meet him after work and he would meet me after class and before I knew it, the clock struck midnight and we were kissing." Jackie pressed her fingers softly to her lips, remembering the warm, perfect feeling of being held by him. "And I don't think we broke apart until breakfast was being served. Then… we avoided each other for a couple of days before Mrs Forman, that's Eric's Mom, invited me to dinner and coincidentally remembered she and Mr Forman had to go to a party, leaving me and Steven to, well… you don't need me to fill you in on that."

"Like hell!" Kate interrupted. "You can't stop now!"

Jackie blushed. "And we went down to the basement couch, which I should have known could only result in one thing, and we watched a movie. And then I began to feel a bit tired so he let me rest my head on his shoulder. And he put his arm around me. And he started stroking my hair." Jackie spoke softly as she remembered every caress. "And he just did that for about an hour while we sat. Then I fell asleep, but I remember waking up in the middle of the night and Steven had fallen asleep next to me and he still had his hand in my hair. And God… I had never felt so whole as I did right then. No tears. No drama. No strippers." Kate smiled. "I just sat there staring at him and when he woke up, I was still in his arms staring at him and then he started staring at me and… we just sat like that. Then I curled up beside him, and he kissed my forehead. After that, we were had no hope. Just grabbing each other whenever we could. I mean, I would sneak over into the house and into the store. I can't tell you how many times we broke the desk in his office. But things were just different. We were talking _so_ much. It's not like we were different or anything… he was still a Zen conspiratist and I was still a self-involved goddess, but we managed to find a way of talking and _listening_, we really figured out how to listen to each other. After about a year, I told him that I wasn't going to push him as much anymore and that if ever the day came where he wanted things to progress, I would be there waiting with no ultimatums in hand. And wouldn't you know, that did the trick because two months later I was being fitted for a satin gown. God, the wedding… it was like a fairytale. My dad was allowed out for the day to give me away. Donna was my maid of honour, Eric and Michael were groomsmen and Fez was the usher. We even had Betsy as the flower girl. To be honest, the whole ceremony is kind of a blur because of how surreal everything felt. All I remember is being stiff the week after our honeymoon." Kate laughed out loud, the first noise she had made since Jackie began talking again. "Look, I'll hand it to him, the man knew his way around." Jackie suppressed a smile. "Now, where was I… oh yes, being stiff. Well, that lasted a good two years. All the good stuff did, actually. I guess two years was our cut-off point, huh? No, but during that time, we were so happy. I was doing well in school and the store was taking on a life of its own, and Steven and I even discussed buying a house for after I graduated. At the time we were living in the apartment I shared with Fez, which I thought might cause some problems but give him a kitchen full of beer and me in a see-through nightie and he was a good boy." Jackie swallowed, hating that she couldn't stop herself from moving to the next chapter. "But as I said, after the first two years it just wasn't going so well anymore. Steven had this big fight with his dad over something and he just threw himself into making the store a success, ignoring everything and everyone else, including me. But to be fair, his ignoring me had more to do with my choices than his own. I thought that if I gave him space and didn't ask about it, then he would be able to find some comfort in me but what I didn't realise was that Steven took this to mean I didn't care about it anymore. All I ever wanted was for him to change and let me in, but when he did I was so surprised by it that I didn't even realise when he needed me. And that made things really hard. We probably wouldn't have even continued living together as long as we did had we not been so stubborn. It's not like we were living in some sort of empty-shell marriage. We would still talk from time to time and we made love more than ever, but that was really because there wasn't all that much left emotionally. You know, to this day, I still cannot pinpoint an exact moment where I can say, 'There! That's when it all started to go wrong.' I do, however, know that I stopped putting us first all the time. Graduation was coming up and I got offered this great internship at a design firm in Milwaukee and my head was telling me to take it or I'd regret it, but I felt that if I did take it, then that would be it for Steven and me. So I said no, and I graduated and I could not find a job. Amazing, huh? I was actually naïve to think that Point Place would be where all my dreams would come true. The worst part was… God, I hate myself for ever even thinking this. The worst part was that I began resenting Steven. I felt like I was foolish for turning down that job for him while he kept pulling away. And the more I resented him, the more he continued pulling away and then it got to the point where we couldn't fix it anymore. So, after a while I couldn't take it and I walked out on him. I moved here, started over and found the money to open up the gallery while he made Grooves a real success. We let our lawyers handle the divorce proceedings and we never saw each other again until last week. Dammit, I know that it is as much my fault as it is his, more so even because I was the one who gave up on us, but I hated that we had talked so much about everything except for what we really needed to talk about."

"Sam."

"Sam. Michael, Chicago, the nurse, Raquel, Christmas, my mom, Annette. Everything either one of us did to put us in that position in the first place. And somehow we ended up using it against each other. He would point out that I wasn't really over Michael when the two of us started dating and that we were always living in his shadow, and I was always pointing out how he would sleep with other girls just to make me feel bad. I mean, God! We were being idiots saying stuff like that! But it was so much easier than just accepting that we weren't working anymore. And that nothing had driven us over the edge except that we stopped trying to make it work. A little bit of advice, no matter how perfect you think things are, all it takes is for one, just one thing, and you wind up heartbroken and too tired to fight it. Maybe if I had pushed Steven to talk when he disconnected himself, or maybe if I had talked to him about the job offer we would have worked it out. Or maybe we were just too tired. And maybe we needed to just stop being together out of loneliness. 'Cos I'll tell you, Kate. I am really lonely." Jackie's lip trembled slightly and she looked down at her hands, playing with her fingers. "And I miss him everyday." Jackie let out a sob and Kate, who was shedding her own tears by now, grabbed Jackie and held her tightly to her. Jackie buried her chin in the crook of Kate's neck and began crying quietly. "I'm just- I'm just so sorry for giving up on him. And I'm so sorry for hurting him."

On the other side of the door, Hyde sat crouched on the floor which he had been sitting on for the past half hour as he listened to Jackie's voice travel through the door. He was leaning his head against the door with his eyes closed.

"I'm sorry too."

_To be continued…_

_----------_

**A/N: **So what did you think? I really loved writing this chapter and I hope that it answered a lot of your questions. This whole 'heart-to-heart' thing isn't my strong point so please be gentle in your reviews. I hope you weren't all put off by the constant talking and minimal description here but I felt like it would better for you all to read the words and not what Jackie was doing while saying them.

Stay safe.


	6. Making Plans Part 2

**The Morning After… what?**

Chapter 6 – Making Plans (Part 2).

**A/N: **Hey everybody. Apologies for the delay and the slower paced than usual chapter. This would have been out at the weekend but I went on a trip with some friends and this got sidelined. I'm glad that you all enjoyed the heart-to-heart because it allowed this story to move away from the past a little. But there is still the elephant in the room to be dealt with…

Happy reading! And thanks to luvcali for the pick-me-up today. You're chat with DM still has me in stitches. :p

**Disclaimer: **Own nothing.

_**Previously…**_

_On the other side of the door, Hyde sat crouched on the floor which he had been sitting on for the past half hour as he listened to Jackie's voice travel through the door. He was leaning his head against the door with his eyes closed._

"_I'm sorry too."_

_To be continued…_

_----------_

It may have been well after midnight and pouring down rain outside, but Kate Field was in no hurry to abandon her boss, who had just spent the last several hours recalling every fragment of her failed relationship with a man whom Kate was quickly learning to be the embodiment of the political world. Lies, cheating, mind games. They were all there, and Kate was stunned that such a young woman could experience this and still manage to pick herself up each and every time her heart was shattered.

But despite the avalanche of information that had been laid onto Kate this evening, one thing didn't fail to stick in her mind. No two people could move past the years of hurt and betrayal to try again as incredibly as Jackie and Hyde had, without becoming a part of each other. And Kate was finally beginning to understand what it was that caused Jackie to be so removed and detached from life. It was that part of her was still with this man and that all the girls' nights and blind dates in the world were not going to change that. Just as the wheels were beginning to turn in Kate's head, she felt Jackie's shaking slow down ever so slightly and just a few moments later, Jackie pulled away to reveal her blotchy face and reddened eyes. She laughed in embarrassment.

"Sorry," she started, her voice still unsteady, "I guess I was asking for it, huh?" Jackie laughed again, this time with an air of sadness, but Kate looked confused.

"What do you mean, 'asking for it'? I think you are entitled to a good cry after everything you went through." Jackie shook her head and pulled a pack of tissues out of her purse, dabbing her eyes while she spoke.

"No, you don't understand." She sniffed. "I've been walking around like a zombie for so long and I completely glossed over what happened with Steven so that I wouldn't break down like this." Jackie cringed. "Oh my God, I'm your boss! I'm your boss and I made you sit and listen to my sob story for 3 hours!" Jackie groaned and flailed her legs in frustration. "I'm just a big dope."

Kate sighed and opened her mouth to speak when she heard something move against the door. Looking at it in bewilderment, she signalled for Jackie to be quiet, and slowly walked over to the door, picked up a baseball bat, removed the chain from the lock, twisted the doorknob and swung the wide open in one fluid motion.

"Ahh!" she screamed, expecting to see a gold-toothed robber with a steak knife in hand. But the only movement Kate saw in the corridor was the elevator doors close on the other end of the hall, and a brief glimpse of a person leaning against the wall, their face hidden from view.

Jackie peeked out from her seat on the couch, with her arms wrapped around a pillow. "What is it?" she asked worriedly. Kate huffed and walked back into the apartment, closing the door.

"Probably just a rat." Jackie's eyes bulged but Kate was quick to calm her. "But I'm sure it wasn't! Why don't we just go to bed?"

Jackie looked at her, bemused. "We?" She stood up. "Kate, either you're about to suggest something kinky or-"

Kate held her hand up and cringed. "I meant, why don't we go to _sleep._" Jackie grinned and threw the pillow back down on the couch. She stretched and yawned simultaneously.

"Sure. It's way too late for you to get a cab home." Jackie picked up their wine glasses and walked across her small living room to her even smaller kitchen. "The couch is a fold out and there are some sheets in the bathroom."

"Wow, thanks for offering me your luxury, four-poster bed, but I'll take this ratty old couch instead," Kate said sarcastically. Jackie grinned.

"Kate, you have been wonderful tonight, but if I don't get into my bed, you are going to have one seriously pissed off boss in the morning," Jackie stated while walking to her room.

"Going to have?"

Jackie turned her head back and stuck out her tongue, disappearing into her bedroom.

Kate laughed to herself and began lifting the cushions off of the couch. After momentarily struggling to pull the bed out of the couch, she walked tiredly into the bathroom and found some worn-out old sheets. "She really goes all out." Kate walked back to the living room and had just settled herself beneath the covers when Jackie's head popped out of her doorway.

"Hey," she whispered, "you really were wonderful tonight." Jackie smiled sweetly at her. "Thanks for listening," she said softly before closing the door again and leaving Kate with a happy feeling in her stomach as she felt sleep begin to take hold of her.

----------

**PLAZA HOTEL**

**PENTHOUSE**

**4.45AM**

The sound of a key in the lock followed by the door opening slightly, paved the way for Hyde to come stumbling through the door and fall face-first onto the carpeted floor. "Ow," he moaned in a muffled voice. With his right foot, he kicked the door closed and moaned again at the loud bang it created. Hyde covered the top of his head with his hands and cursed himself for believing that it really was ice-tea that a bum offered him on the street.

Not trusting his stomach to make it all the way to the bathroom, Hyde remained on the floor and prayed that he didn't decorate the carpet with some morning-after flavouring.

----------

**JACKIE'S APARTMENT**

**7.00AM**

Another perk to being one's own boss meant that she could go to work whenever she wanted so Jackie was taking advantage of this by spending the time she would normally devote to perfecting her appearance, to having a second cup of coffee and a second plate of day-old Danish. Seeing as how Kate was sprawled out on the couch, still sleeping, she sat down on a stool at the kitchen counter and quietly continued eating her breakfast all the while remembering what she had said the night before. What amazed her was how long and how fluidly she could speak about her relationship with Hyde, but what amazed her more was how she could still manage to leave out some significant details. Such as what she had been driven too after the divorce, why she had disconnected herself from all of her friends back home except for Fez. But those questions could be answered another time. After going to take another piece from her plate but encountering a few crumbs instead, Jackie frowned and realised that she didn't have anymore distractions from starting her day. So she stood, walked over to where Kate slept, cleared her throat and assumed **the **tone.

"KATE!"

Kate immediately jumped up and frantically gathered her bearings as she stared confusedly up into Jackie's eyes. "Huh? What's going on?"

Jackie threw the covers back. "The coffee is freshly made. There is still some hot water left. I am going to the office and I hope to see you there before lunch-time. And remember to confirm my meeting with Christine St. George this afternoon."

Jackie turned around and picked up her coat and her keys, and was about to leave when Kate's voice stopped her. "Who is it you are meeting for lunch, again?" Jackie turned around slowly.

"My friend Fez, from back home," she reminded her, confused about why she was being asked this today.

"The foreign guy who got you and Steven back together that one time, right?" Jackie nodded but before she could verbalise a response, Kate cut her off. "Great, see you later!" and she bounded off into the bathroom, leaving Jackie standing in the middle of her living room, more determined than ever to get Kate a dog.

"And it's still _Hyde!"_

----------

**SOMEWHERE IN MANHATTAN**

**7.45AM**

Early morning Manhattan was known for reeking of smoke and garbage but the ice cold temperatures, ignorant crowds and disregard for helping people were making it increasingly easy for Kate to be running even more behind than she already was. Seeing the metal box of her dreams only a few yards away, she hurriedly picked up her pace, fixed her eyes on the prize, and started using her brother's football playing tactics to knock people out of her way and leaving the path clear. Ignoring the disgruntled groans of pedestrians, Kate fished around in her purse for a moment and smiled widely when she pulled out a quarter. "Yes!" she exclaimed to herself. She put the coin into the payphone, lifted the receiver and began dialling the number she had scribbled on her palm just a short while ago.

After only one ring, she faintly heard someone clear their throat and was greeted with an excruciating chipper voice.

"NBVT, double C, DE Broadcasting Corporation," the receptionist sing-songed. Kate cringed.

"Ah, hello. I was hoping to speak with a member of Christine St. George's team."

"Oh, I'm sorry. But Ms. George is an extremely busy woman and we simply cannot-"

"No!" Kate cut her off sharply. "I don't want to talk to Christine. I want to-"

"That is Ms. George to you. And what do you mean you don't want to talk to her? _Everybody,_ and I do mean _everybody_, wants to speak to her. Is she not good enough for some New York streetwalker?" The receptionist laughed sarcastically. "Oh, I think not."

Kate began banging her head on the frame of the payphone and this continued for the next 20 minutes, during which time she was accused of destroying the very moral fabric of society. _This guy better be really twisted_ Kate thought to herself as the barrage of insults continued without mercy.

----------

**PLAZA HOTEL**

**11.00AM**

Sounds. Noises. Disturbances.

These were what Hyde awoke to, as well as the illuminating streaks of late-morning sun that were streaming through his penthouse window and preparing his mind for the mother of all hangovers.

The noises continued and Hyde, groaning, reached out clumsily for a pillow and quickly threw one over his head to silence the painfully loud knocks at the door. He assumed the person out in the hall had seen sense and left him alone because a few minutes later, the only sounds to be heard were the deep snores of an unconscious orphan boy from Wisconsin.

But the noises started up again.

----------

**ELTON RENAISSANCE GALLERY**

**12.00PM – SHARP**

"Ow!" Jackie screamed as her right foot connected with the front door of her business. If it weren't for the surprisingly strong hold of yet another empowered female who had weeded their way into Jackie's life, she would still be sitting on the toilet and not have been interrupted in perhaps the worst possible moment, and left to struggle to pull her pants all the way back up while being pushed out into the crowded street which provided just the right amount of disdainful lack of class to make her gallery stand out from the pack.

She was still being pushed out into the street and her pants were still circling her thighs when she managed to break free. She whipped around, breathless. "What… the hell… do you think you're doing?" Jackie exclaimed.

Kate smiled innocently. "I didn't want you to be late for your lunch date."

Jackie adjusted her underwear awkwardly. "I'll tell you what. Next time I'm running behind, just pop your head in the door and tell me-"

"I did!-" Jackie swiftly put her finger on Kate's lips to silence her.

"By door? I do not mean the door to the bathroom stall. And even if I did mean that, do not do it when I was…" Jackie trailed off looking incredibly embarrassed, "…doing…_that."_

Kate shook her head, again innocently. "Sweetie, you worry too much about what other people think." Jackie's mouth dropped open in offence but Kate ignored it. "Now hurry along and have a good lunch break." Kate ran back inside and grabbed Jackie's purse from the front desk, ran back outside and placed it on Jackie's shoulder. "Now shoo!" she ordered.

Slightly unnerved by her discomforting behaviour, Jackie smiled weakly and walked away quickly, turning her head back every few seconds to see whether or not Kate had transformed into something as horrific as Godzilla. Or a Democrat.

Back in the parking lot of the gallery, Kate smiled at her mission being accomplished and she ran back inside with a skip in her step. She landed next to the front desk and picked up the phone, calling aloud the number she had been forced to remember earlier that morning. "Hello?... Hi, it's me… Yep, she just left." Kate smiled proudly. "She doesn't suspect a thing. She still thinks she is going to meet you."

Several miles away, Fez sat at his station and smiled contently. "Excellent. Now we are both aware that this is only phase one of the plan. There will be instant joking between them. Then one of them will sweat too much and the other will think they are being lied to, and then they will swear never to see one another again. But…"

"That's where we come in," Kate finished for him. Unknown to each other, they were both jumping with excitement with the first stage of their plan set in motion.

----------

**PERZITO'S RESTAURANT**

**12.25PM**

Jackie muttered obscenities as she hurried through the restaurant to where she saw a lone figure sitting hunched forward at her booth. A lone figure that was probably incredibly pissed off right now. Gathering herself, she plastered on an apologetic expression and walked slowly over to the booth. "Fez, I am so sor_ry…_ you're not Fez."

He looked up and smiled at her. "Got that right. But if I start acting like him, pull the plug."

Jackie stared back, dumbfounded. "Steven."

----------

Over a minute had passed and Jackie still stood gawking at her ex-husband while he sat quietly, seemingly engrossed with a napkin. Jackie was the first to break the silence.

"Steven, what are you doing here?" she asked sliding into the seat across from him. He shrugged.

"Same as you."

Jackie looked at him disbelieving. "_I'm _here to meet Fez."

Hyde nodded. "Me too. Which brings us back to the 'same as you' thing," he said, ever the smartass. But Jackie was still feeling confused.

"But why would Fez ask you to meet him here when he has been meeting me here everyday for the last-"

"I think the more appropriate question," he countered, cutting her off and leaving her slightly peeved, "is why Fez isn't here now."

Jackie nodded in agreement. "Yeah, it is a bit strange." Suddenly, realisation hit her. "Oh my God," she muttered quietly. Hyde looked at her strangely.

"What is it?" Jackie laughed in amazement.

"Isn't it obvious, Steven?" Hyde shook his head showing that it wasn't quite so obvious to him. Jackie clarified, "Fez wants us to get back together and this was the only way he could get us together." Jackie's eyes bulged. "And Kate!"

Hyde now looked even more confused. "Kate?"

Jackie slammed her fist down on the table. "She's in on it too! That's why she came into my toilet and dragged me out into the street, practically naked." Hyde blinked. Jackie ran her hands through her hair. "Nice lunch, my ass." She stood up, not making eye contact with him. "Sorry for wasting your time, Steven. I'll just let you…" she trailed off, looking around embarrassedly. She turned to walk out when Hyde's arm landed in front of her. She looked at him quizzically. "I didn't realise this place had installed a toll booth." Hyde smirked.

"No, no, just…" he lifted his arm and signalled towards where she had been sitting, and he looked at her hopefully. "Wanna sit? And talk?"

Jackie stared at him, laughing slightly. It was an insane idea but it was none more so than two strangers co-conspiring to reunite two ex-spouses at an Italian restaurant in the middle of the day. And it's not like she had anything pressing to do that day. So, silently, she walked back around the table and sat down again, this time making eye contact with him. She frowned when a fact struck her. "Where are your ice-breakers?"

Hyde's confusion was not hitting a new peak. "Damn alternate realities," he mumbled to himself. Noticing Jackie's bewildered face; Hyde decided that this whole encounter would be useless if confused expressions were all that occurred between them.

Despite this, silence resumed and Jackie found herself tapping her finger nails against the table while Hyde clicked the inside of his mouth and counted the ceiling tiles. One every few minutes, their eyes would meet and they would share a nervous laugh but then it was back to pure avoidance.

"So," Hyde offered suddenly and Jackie snapped back to attention, thankful for one of them starting a conversation. "You're still short," Hyde stated, fully believing that this was a step in the right direction. Jackie however, was convinced more than ever that the years without her had not been good to his resistance towards dipping into his stash while on the job. Or on the John. If memory served, he was never too picky about where he could start a circle.

Hyde ventured forth again. "How's work?"

Jackie thought for a moment. "OK," she replied enthusiastically. She searched for something more to say. "I, uh, I… got a new recycling bin," she offered. Hyde nodded as enthusiastically as she spoke.

"Good, that's good. Recycling is good for the uh…" Hyde trailed off when he realised he was lost again. "What the hell is recycling?" Jackie laughed genuinely.

"Leave it to you to be obsessed with the government but ignorant of the more immediate problems." Jackie leaned in across the table slightly. "Steven, this hole in the o-zone layer is not getting any smaller. And with the sulphur dioxide levels reaching an all-time high, we can expect another Chernobyl any day now!" she exclaimed. 

Hyde just shook his head in utter confusion. Superficial and occasionally pleasant teenage Jackie he could get a handle of. Socially aware and incredibly passionate Jackie? No such luck. Although, after giving her figure another appreciative glance, he would be more than happy to get a handle on the latter.

He smiled again to try and ease the uncomfortable silence but in his mind he was nearing a meltdown. With all the smiling he had been doing lately, Hyde felt like someone should warn Goofy that he was about to be run out of town. But despite his better judgement, Hyde couldn't bite his tongue any longer.

"Jackie, what the hell is going on with you?" he asked bluntly. "You're reserved… a-and intelligent and… stuff!"

"And I can see that is a common trait we share," she deadpanned.

Hyde glared at her. "Stop being smart! Be a bitch! Be demanding!" He looked around in desperation. "Be Jackie Burkhart, dammit!" Jackie stormed out of her seat and sped around the table to lean in _very_ close to him.

"Steven, for God's sake, quiet down!" she commanded. She slowly sat down again, her eyes never leaving his. She gestured cordially to him. "Now you wanted to talk, so talk." She leaned in again. "Using sentences with more than 3 words." She sat back without as much as another sound before she remembered something. "And you never answered my question."

Hyde exhaled loudly. "What question?"

"_What happened to your icebreakers_?" she pressed. Hyde groaned loudly and buried his face in his hands.

"Jackie, I don't know what the hell icebreakers are, OK?"

She sat back, looking a little hurt. "Wow, you really went to extremes to forget every detail of our relationship."

"Don't you mean our marriage?" Hyde bit back angrily. He sighed. "Let's just say I'm suffering from a little memory loss these days." She looked at him with a slight hint of concern.

"You OK?"

Hyde rolled his eyes. "OK? Let's see, I spent last night camped out outside your apartment listening to you recount where exactly our marriage went wrong, and today I got conned into a fake lunch with a foreigner who apparently dated my wife before we got married. And apparently some girl named _Sam_ figures into why I looked like a porn star for 10 years. So, yeah Jackie. I'm just great!"

Jackie laughed in amazement. "Hold on. You were the one outside my apartment? Kate thought it was a rat!" Looking at him again, she continued, "Guess she wasn't too far off the mark." Another thought occurred to her. "Wait, you think Sam only _figured_ into things? I cannot belie…" Jackie stopped herself and took a deep breath. "Why are you bringing her into this? And what is **this** to begin with? I thought we were both past it?"

"Past what?" Hyde asked.

"Past us."

They both were silent for a moment before Hyde started again, "Well apparently that's not the case or else you wouldn't have been crying last night over how much you miss me, would you?" Hyde spat angrily.

Jackie didn't even make a sound. Not a whimper. But she did gather her purse and walk out.

_Dammit_.

----------

**OUTSIDE PERZITO'S**

"Jackie!" Hyde called. "Jackie!" he called again, rushing after her. After a few more vain shouts, he got close enough to block her path with his arm. "Jackie, wait," he said a lot more calmly. She avoided his eyes but didn't try to leave and folded her arms tightly over her chest, signalling for him to proceed. "Look, I didn't mean for that to come out so-"

"Vindictive? Cruel? Ass-like? 'Cos you're an ass, Steven!" Jackie shouted, giving a few passing pedestrians quite a chuckle.

Hyde pinched the bridge of his nose with his fingers. "No, I mean yeah I sounded like an ass but no, that's not what I meant." They both sighed. "I just meant that we're both, you know… here."

Jackie stared at him blankly. "Good to know." Hyde stared at her in confusion before he sensed where she was going.

"Oh, good to- you know what, don't even go down that road," he told her teasingly. She smirked. They sighed again. "This," he started, indicating them both, "isn't going to go away unless we're stopped by, you know."

Jackie looked at him blankly again. "By… what? A highway patrol man?" Hyde's eyes widened and he yelled in frustration.

"For God's sake Jackie, will you take this seriously!"

She smirked again. "Wow, talk about role reversal." She nudged his shoulder and walked away from him, her arms still crossed making her look like the icy loner she was happily becoming until fate stuck its plastic nose in and dropped her in Madison. Hyde groaned and reluctantly followed suit.

Being careful not to walk right behind her in case of a surprise punch to the gut, Hyde assimilated her pace and walked alongside her as he attempted to appease her. "Look-"

"No, you look!" Jackie shouted, stopping dead in her tracks. "I never wanted things to be this way. Neither of us did. But they are so just deal with it and leave me alone!" She marched off, this time leaving her dignity behind. But she still couldn't shake 160lb of dead weight.

"I would leave you alone, except you won't leave me alone," Hyde said as he rejoined her. Clearing it up for her, he continued, "You see, I woke up last week thinking life was great, but it turns out," Hyde stopped her and made her look at him, "life sucks. And it's…" Hyde trailed off and let her finish it for him.

Jackie's face softened but she remained determined to make him see sense. "Steven," she took both his hands in hers, "I'm really sorry that you're unhappy. And I wish I could just make it better," she told him, her eyes filling, "but I can't, Steven. I'm not going to be able to be there for you anymore."

Hyde closed his eyes and pursed his lips to cover the deep swallow he was forced to take. "Huh." He removed his hands from her grasp. "Sorry for wasting both our time." Slowly turning around, he walked along the street scratching the back of his head, leaving Jackie to stand rooted in the same spot and accept that this man was lost and had to find his own way.

----------

**CHRISTINE ST. GEORGE'S OFFICE**

Christine looked up from the outline she had skimmed over. "So, Miss Burkhart, you think you are ready to guest on my show?"

Jackie nodded quickly with a huge smile. "Oh definitely, Ms George. I am ready and wiling to make this whole deal a success for both you and me." Christine smiled brightly.

"Wonderful! Then you won't mind me telling you that we've changed your appearance to the 20th!"

Jackie shook her head. "That is not problem, whatsoe- wait a second." She leaned forward in her seat. "Did you say the 20th?" Christine nodded. "Bu-but, **today**is the 20th!"

Christine smiled again. "That's right, dear. In two short hours, you will be talking live in front of 900,000 people about the only thing you have going for yourself in your life." Jackie looked stunned. "Mr. Fez talks quite a bit if you bribe him enough." Jackie folded her arms across her chest.

"Nestle Tollhouse?" Christine nodded. "That'll do it."

----------

**2 HOURS LATER**

**CHRISTINE'S SET**

With cameras, crowds and cheers all around her, Jackie briefly flashbacked to her ill-fated cable access show where she introduced herself as Backie Jurkhart. The make-up artist once again popped up out of nowhere and began dabbing her face with enough concealer to hide the members of the French Resistance. Jackie laughed. She really had to stop watching those documentaries on World War II.

As she was getting comfortable on her seat, Jackie spotted Kate waving at her from the stands and Jackie, who had been planning on hunting for her blood after the show, felt a surge of adrenaline flow through her and she stormed out of her seat and across the studio where she thanked the fates for putting Kate on the end of a row. Jackie knocked on the thin metal separating them and Kate smiled down at her.

"Hey, boss! Looking good today!"

Jackie guffawed. "How dare you say that to me? I look _better_ than good and I look this good _everyday_, thank you." Jackie began to walk away when she remembered the point of her witch hunt. "Hey!" she whispered fiercely, "what the hell were you thinking today?"

Kate shrugged her shoulders innocently. "It's better to be prompt than a tardy?" Jackie's eyes narrowed. "OK, fine. I made a slip."

"A slip?" Jackie exclaimed. Catching herself, she lowered her voice. "Telling my date that I fooled around with his brother? That's a slip. But working with one of my oldest friends to set me and my ex-husband up after everything I told you? That's insane!"

Kate was quick top defend herself. "But it was _because_ of what you told me about you two that Fez and I did it in the first place!"

Jackie laughed. "What was that? Me telling you that Steven and I didn't know how to talk to each other anymore?" Kate leaned in very closely.

"You telling me that you are sorry you hurt him and how you miss him everyday!" she hissed. Jackie groaned.

"How many people are going to bring that up today?" Jackie put a hand to her forehead. "Kate, look. I know you meant well, but-"

"Miss Burkhart?" Jackie glared to see who had interrupted her and smiled sheepishly when she realised it was the stage manager. "We're ready for you now," he told her. Jackie smiled at him and muttered a 'thank you'. She turned back to Kate, who looked slightly frustrated.

"We'll finish this later, OK?" she asked pleasantly. Kate rolled her eyes and nodded.

Jackie now prepared herself for her television debut as Christine had some last words with the director and went behind the curtains she emerged from at the beginning of every show.

Time was flying by, and before Jackie knew it, the director was counting down, "5, 4, 3, 2," and he signalled with his hand that transmission had begun.

She felt as if she was in a musical as she heard the crowd begin to cheer and a drum roll sound from above her. She laughed when Christine emerged elegantly from the curtains and received an enormous round of applause. Jackie sat back, and enjoyed the show.

"Thank you, ladies and homosexuals! Welcome to yet another edition of Christy Central and I hope you all are feeling well today." Christine began walking around the stage. "Today, not only do we have our usual selection of prizes to be won and issues to be discussed, but we have a very special treat for all you men and lesbians out there. She's classy, she sophisticated. And if I do say so myself, quite a hottie." The crowd cheered loudly and Jackie laughed when Christine came up to stand behind her and the camera focused on the two of them. "This is Jackie Burkhart, owner of one of the best up and coming art gallery's to hit Manhattan in the last decade. And just to add to the delicious sight of this fine young woman, we are offering one of you the lucky chance to escort Miss Burkhart to the opening of her latest showing. For ladies and gentlemen, it is time for one of you, to "Win A Date With Jackie Burkhart!" The audience began applauding loudly and Christine squeezed Jackie's arm as the show went to commercial.

Once they were clear, Christine leaned down into Jackie's ear. "I bet you didn't see this one coming, sweetheart." Christine patted her shoulder and walked away to chat with the director, leaving Jackie to fume quietly on the stage.

This couldn't end well.

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**A/N:** And there we go. My mind isn't working too quickly right now and I have completely forgotten everything I just wrote, so why not drop a review and let me know what was good and what wasn't?

Stay safe.


	7. Fear and Repression

**The Morning After… what? **

****

Chapter 7 – Fear and Repression. 

**A/N: **Hey everybody. I have had a really bad cold this week, and I still do, so it's been a bit of a challenge writing this. Word of warning, to make myself feel better, I dredged out some old Hyde anger which you may notice being used _ever-so-subtly_.

Happy reading!

**Disclaimer: **Own nothing.

**_Previously… _**

_For, ladies and gentlemen, it is time for one of you, to "Win A Date With Jackie Burkhart!" The audience began applauding loudly and Christine squeezed Jackie's arm as the show went to commercial. _

_Once they were clear, Christine leaned down into Jackie's ear. "I bet you didn't see this one coming, sweetheart." Christine patted her shoulder and walked away to chat with the director, leaving Jackie to fume quietly on the stage. _

_This couldn't end well. _

----------

It actually had ended well. As a result of the competition, each of Christine's show for the next 3 days drew some of the highest ratings the show had ever received and the phone lines had not stopped ringing from men entering themselves into the competition over and over again. But this was not wearing a bikini next to a pinball machine which was in desperate need of promotion. This was a woman literally prostituting herself for the sake of her business. And as was often the case in New York City, not a set of moral objections were to be found.

"This is a disaster," she stated, clipped.

"I do not understand what the problem is here," Fez stated calmly. "You have always wanted fame, and now you have got it."

Jackie stopped nervously pacing around her living room and eyed him in amazement. " Fez!" He jumped. She stomped over to where he sat on the couch and grabbed his arms while he swallowed in fear of what this pixie was going to do to him. "I am actually being sold to a man who watches _Christy Central_!"

Fez turned his nose in disgust. "I really hate that name." Jackie groaned and let go of his arms.

She turned around and flopped down on her couch, hugging a pillow to her stomach. "And the worst part is I'll probably end up stuck with a cross-dresser or something."

Fez nodded in agreement. "They are our main demographic."

Seeing her sulking yet again ignited something in Fez and he stood up in a burst of courage. "Oh, would you please stop feeling sorry for yourself!" he exclaimed. "You are not the only one here with problems!"

Jackie was taken aback. "Uh… ok." She sat forward and looked at him nervously, giving her full attention. "Why don't you tell me what's wrong with you?"

Fez's fuming expression quickly turned to a chipper one. "Oh nothing, my life is perfect right now."

She laughed lightly and scratched the nape of her neck. "OK… well do you want to tell me why you just blew up like that, then?" He let out a frustrated sigh.

"I just wanted you to stop complaining about the show and tell me what happened at lunch the other day with you and Hyde." She plastered on an innocent look.

"Nothing," she replied in a much too squeaky voice for Fez's liking. He narrowed his eyes suspiciously.

"And when you say nothing, you mean…"

Jackie huffed. "I mean… nothing," she finished, sounding slightly disappointed. Fez sat down, dejected. She saw the sad look on his face and spoke softly. "Sorry, Fez. I know you were hoping we would work it out, but…" Her eyes clouded over with confusion as she replayed the conversation in her head.

He sat forward, wondering why she hadn't spoken in almost a minute. "But…?" She snapped out of the daze.

"But, uh…" She cleared her throat. "Too much has happened. And he is so different from how he used to be, I mean, the man I had lunch with is not the man I married."

"So you went to lunch with someone else?" Fez asked, struggling to follow.

Jackie smiled at his naivety. "I mean," she started, walking over to sit beside him on the other couch, "Steven has changed." She leaned her head on Fez's shoulder. "I've changed too, I suppose, but he… he has just lost himself somewhere along the way."

"It was probably when you left him," Fez stated. Jackie lifted her head and looked offended.

"I thought you were on my side?"

Fez chuckled. "I am, my dear Jackie. But that does not change that Hyde was happy when he was with you."

"Oh yeah," she said scoffed, "when he was sober."

"Look who's talking," Fez quickly retorted. His hand flew over his mouth. "Oh Jackie, no! I'm sorry!" Jackie shuffled away from him and kept her head down as she felt her eyes begin to sting. She tried to process what her best friend had just thrown in her face and shrugged off his apology. Fez moved closer to her and grabbed her hand tightly. "Jackie, I am sorry. I really did not mean that. I was just-". She stood up quickly.

"You were just sticking up for Steven, right?" she snapped. Fez feared he had incurred her wrath But she caught herself before she said something she would regret.

She rubbed her hand across her forehead. " Fez, I know you were just… I know you didn't mean that. And I'm not angry at you, OK?" Fez nodded, but he jumped when she kicked her foot into the table. "AHHHHH!" she yelled. She lashed out and knocked the vase of flowers off the table, running her hands through her hair trying to calm herself.

Fez stood up, concerned. "Yes, you are definitely not angry," he muttered nervously. He took her gently by the arms and sat her down again on the couch as she cried softly. "Just take a seep breath," he told her softly. She sniffed and smiled as she tried to collect herself. Fez went to get her a glass of water from the kitchen and when he returned, she had calmed herself enough to explain her earlier outburst.

"I'm sorry, Fez." She took a sip. "It just sucks to know that Steven still gets brownie points from some people for being the 'victim' in this situation." She took another sip to calm her quickly rising temper.

Fez eyed her suspiciously. "What people?"

Jackie rolled her eyes. "Have you forgotten how you and Michael treated him at Madison?" She looked at Fez curiously. "Did I ever tell you about this girl I was working with when Steven and I were getting divorced? Amy?" Fez shook his head. "Well, Amy was an assistant for a member of the legal team and we became really quick friends." Jackie took another sip. "Anyway, she asked me one day why Steven and I had separated, and I told her that I couldn't be with him anymore. That it just wasn't working. And you know what she said?" Fez shook his head again. Jackie adapted her bimbo-voice "She said, 'Steven Hyde? He was the badass at Point Place High, right? Well he's hot so who cares what he did?'" Fez smiled at her sadly. "Do you have any idea how many times I have heard something like that over the years?"

Jackie stood again and wringed her arms to relieve some building tension.

"Steven is not a nice person. I mean, we both know that. But for some reason, _every_ guy… wants to be his friend and _every _girl wants to screw him! If he does something sadistic like, for lack of a better example, marry a stripper." Fez smiled. "Or cheat on his girlfriend. Or get off on insulting his friends. Let's say Steven does a crappy thing like that, well then a person would be perfectly within reason to cut him out of their life, wouldn't they? But uh…" Jackie trailed off, her voice beginning to shake. "But if a woman, again for lack of a better example, like me, did such a thing and cut him out, then would it be OK for me to still be told that Steven deserves another chance and that it is better to be with the man I love than to be sober and in control of my life?" She wiped her eyes with the back of her hands and hurried on.

**"**I mean, fair enough, he had a lot of bad breaks. I'm not so awful that I can't see that. But Fez, that is not my fault! OK?" Jackie had gotten herself so worked up that she was beginning to stumble over her words. "A-A-And I didn't toss him aside like a pair of shoes that went out of fashion. I really tried to help him… but no-one cares about that. In the eyes of everybody I thought cared about me, besides you guys, I became this cold-hearted bitch who walked out on a man who had been abandoned by his parents, a man who relied solely on his wife and a man who deserved a second chance." Jackie turned to look at Fez. "But Steven deserves nothing." Her voice shook again. "He **is** nothing anymore. And I don't care how much he went through as a child. And I don't care how many girls find bad-asses hot. And I sure as hell don't care that he threw his life away because he couldn't get over himself and work for something besides a damn record store!" Tears spilled over onto her cheeks. "After _everything_ that he has done… I really wish people would stop sticking up for him. And if they're going to, they should at least use a better excuse than 'he is cool and he is hot, so who cares?" she finished, once again in her vintage bimbo-voice.

Fez laughed lightly as she finished her tirade, but he felt such shame at forcing Hyde back onto her after everything she had just told him. And he felt even worse knowing that she had only given him a brief glimpse into her pain. He had to admit that Hyde did get a lot of breaks from his friends and that they hadn't been as hard on him as they should've been. And Fez felt almost suffocated with shame as he realised that the reason he had never objected to Hyde's inhumane behaviour was that he saw it to be cool. "Ai, I am a fool."

Jackie laughed as she finished wiping her eyes. " Fez, you're not a fool! You're a hero! Even after all these years you can withstand my whining about my life." Fez stood.

"Well, you might be slightly overdramatic at times, but… I think you've earned it by now." She punched his chest playfully.

"Jackie…" Fez said seriously, "why did you blow up like that?" Jackie shrugged helplessly.

"Repression." Fez smiled. "Not talking about him for so long and them having him act so strangely just made me go over the edge, I guess." The pair hugged. "Thank you for being here again."

Fez smiled. "Anytime. And thank you for letting me feel the back of your bra."

"Anytime."

----------

**MADISON**

**ERIC AND DONNA'S HOUSE **

Donna opened the door. "Hyde?" she asked in disbelief. "I thought you were in New York!"

"I need a drink," he muttered, brushing past her. Donna remained in her spot at the door.

"Great to see you too! Come on in!" She rolled her eyes and closed the door tiredly. Eric was at a teaching conference and would not be back for another two days but her morning, noon and night sickness meant that she was not in the best frame of mind to deal with yet another one of Hyde's impromptu visits.

She wandered into the living room where she saw him sitting on a chair with one hand holding a beer, and the other buried somewhere underneath his belt. She grimaced.

Hyde sensed her stare but avoided it to his best ability. Still. Gawking redheads had a way about them and he now felt forced to acknowledge her with some eye contact.

"Someone's angry," she commented. Hyde scoffed.

"Me? Angry? Never!" he joked. "Want a beer?" Donna shook her head and patted her stomach lightly.

"Someone wouldn't approve." Hyde's eyes bulged in surprise and he immediately put the beer can down on the table, wiping his mouth with his coat sleeve. Donna grinned at him and rested a hand on her stomach, looking down at it. "Little Girl Forman," she gestured to Hyde, "meet your uncle Hyde."

Hyde laughed. "You're having a girl?" Donna rolled her eyes playfully.

"Well, even if it's a boy, it will have Eric as a dad so…"

Hyde laughed harder this time. "Nice, Donna. I don't think I've ever heard you insult Forman before." She looked at him strangely.

"What are you talking about, Hyde? Eric and I have-"

"Donna," Hyde said quickly, cutting her off, "you are probably going to tell me something that you think I should know but the truth is," He waved his hands in surrender, "I don't know a thing." He turned around and sat back down. "And sorry about your dad, by the way." Now she was even more confused.

She walked to stand in front of him. "OK, first of all. You must have smoked the entire Amazon rainforest for you to forget anything considering how much attention you used to pay to your surroundings." Hyde laughed sarcastically. "And second of all, why would you be sorry about my dad?" she asked, slightly worried.

"You know, 'cos he died," Hyde stated off-handedly. Donna let out a gasp and her left hand went to her stomach to quench the sickening feeling that was rising in her stomach. Hyde was incredibly alarmed by this action and he hoped that he hadn't misread her comment about somebody passing away and how she had wanted him there at the funeral, even if he and Bob weren't that close.

Hyde leant forward and grabbed both of Donna's hands in his. He fixed his eyes on hers. "Donna," he said forcefully, "who were you talking about when you said you wished I had made it to the funeral?" Donna let out a shaky breath.

"What do you mean, 'who was I talking about?' It was my uncle Tom." Donna shook Hyde lightly as if trying to waken him up. "You know, my dad's brother who had been dying of cancer?" she reminded him.

Hyde fell back onto the couch limply and didn't so much as utter another sound. His puzzled silence gave Donna time to begin worrying about just how much of an effect losing Jackie had had on her friend. Showing genuine concern for his ex-wife was one thing, but believing her father was dead was something much more serious. Deciding to get some answers, Donna walked out into the kitchen without drawing any attention from a now-seemingly-comatose Hyde. She picked up the phone and quickly began dialling Jackie's number from memory. It took a few rings for her to pick up, and when she did, Donna could hear muffled laughter in the background.

"Hello?" Jackie breathlessly greeted.

"Hey, Jackie. Am I interrupting you?" Donna teased.

Jackie laughed the first real laugh Donna had heard in a while. Considering everything she had gone through, it still amazed Donna that her friend could always find the fun in life.

"Nooo, Fez and Kate are just tormenting me with my pillows. Hold on a sec, _Guys, put down the box of Trojans!_" Jackie cleared her throat. "Now, where were we?" she asked sweetly.

Donna laughed. "_Box of Trojans_? Something you wanna tell me, Jackie?" She could almost hear Jackie's facial muscles turn into a frown.

"Get your mind out of the gutter, _Donna_! Fez just took the invite for a sleepover the wrong way." Donna rolled her eyes.

"How long is it going to take for him to get the message?"

"About as long as it's going to take for you to tell me you're pregnant," Jackie shot back. Donna gasped. "Which was going to be at the kid's graduation, if you had your way."

"How did you know I was pregnant? Wait, when did you know I was pregnant?"

"When I talked to you on Monday. You sounded fatter."

Donna glared through the phone. "I was eating lunch, you little gnome!"

"Ugh! Beanpole!"

"Midget!"

"Bigfoot!"

"Oh, you-!" Donna suddenly remembered that Hyde was in her living room. "Jackie… we're grown women. There is no need for name calling, so truce?" Silence on the other end and Donna could tell she was deliberating her answer. "Jackie!" she barked.

"Fine!" Jackie bit back. "Truce… lumberjack," she muttered.

Donna's teeth clenched. "Anyway… Not to spoil your fun or anything, but you'll never guess who just showed up on my door," Donna told her airily.

"The kid from Uncle Buck?" Jackie asked, knowing that there could be only one person in question."

"I think something is really wrong with him this time." She looked back into the living room to see if he had moved at all, but he had not. She lowered her voice to a mere whisper. "He thought my dad was dead, Jackie," she said worriedly. She heard Jackie shaky breath on the other end of the line.

"What?" she shakily whispered. "Donna…"

"Yeah?"

Jackie let out a deep breath. "Um, hold on; let me go into my room." Donna heard her moving around and harshly telling Kate and Fez to quieten down. "OK, we can talk now. What else did he say?"

Donna swallowed deeply. "Not much. He just seemed surprised when I told him my dad was fine… and then he started pleading with me to tell him who had died."

Donna frowned when she heard Jackie mutter to herself. "Jackie?"

"Hmm? Oh, sorry," she said, sounding distracted.

"Jackie, what is it you know?" she pressed.

"It's just- when Steven and I met a few days ago… he was saying things… things that he hasn't said in… Donna, he didn't even know who Sam was."

This triggered the final switch in Donna's mind and she sadly came to the realisation that Hyde's drug use had gone too far. She pulled a stool from under the kitchen counter and sat on it, her legs wobbling. "Oh my God…"

Jackie continued. "A-And at first, I thought he was playing with me-"

"Well maybe he was!" Donna barged in hopefully.

"But," Jackie barrelled on, "then he said he didn't even know what his icebreakers were."

Donna nodded blankly. "OK… and that's bad?" Jackie sighed.

"It's kind of an inside thing for the two of us, but the point is, it is something he would _never_ forget but apparently he has."

Donna sighed and ran a hand tiredly through her hair. "What do you want me to do with him? Do you want to talk to him?"

"No!" Jackie quickly shouted. Donna was taken aback but she kept quiet so that Jackie could explain herself. "Um, he might be kind of angry at me."

"Look, Hyde has never been able to stay mad at you for long so just talk to him, OK? And don't be bossy!" she added.

"Me? Bossy? Never!" Jackie stated adamantly.

Donna groaned. "Oh, you two are perfect for each other!"

----------

**10 MINUTES LATER **

After a few more rounds of seeing who could insult who most, Jackie begrudgingly agreed to talk to her ex-husband. So Donna, once again being the instigator of this tumultuous saga, walked back into the living room where Hyde was rummaging around for records.

"Hyde?" she called softly. He looked up expectantly. "Phone for you."

Hyde frowned. "Who knows I'm here?" Donna smiled innocently and Hyde rolled his eyes disbelievingly. "Of course. Damn woman is better at tracking than the US Army," he muttered while standing up and dusting off his jeans. He walked into the kitchen to where the phone was and Donna watched in bewilderment as he came out only a moment later. "I hung up," Hyde stated in response to her unanswered question. Donna smacked a hand to her forehead.

"Oh Hyde!" she groaned. "I had to recite the entire first page of my diary before she would even consider talking to you."

"Well, now you can go back and recite the second page," he said without looking up from the vast array of '70s records he had discovered.

Donna stomped off and dialled Jackie's number again. After the ringing stopped, she began, "_Today I got my first period and it made me feel like a woman for the first time…_"

----------

Donna wasn't exactly what time it was, but she and Hyde were comfortably settled into a '40s movie when Hyde suddenly started talking.

"Donna?" She looked at him.

"Yeah?" she asked, aloof.

Hyde cleared his throat loudly and she sat up, giving her full attention. "Has anything… strange ever happened to you?"

Donna laughed. "Well, I didn't expect to get stood up at my wedding, if that's what you mean?" Hyde smiled.

"Well, I was talking more along the lines of… misplacing the last 10 years of your life?" he questioned, losing his casual tone. Donna stared at him in concern.

"Hyde, is that what's wrong? You can't remember-"

"Anything?" Hyde offered. Donna nodded, as did he. As far as I knew, it was almost Christmas-"

"Well, it's not that far away, I suppose."

"-1979," Hyde finished.

Donna's mouth hung open and she scrambled out of her chair so that she was next to Hyde on the couch. She grabbed his left hand. "Hyde…"

"You know, I've tried to… whatever." Hyde swallowed. "I tried fixing my life, and I tried talking to people because I thought it was all some fucked up nightmare." Donna was stunned at the look of anguish on his face. "But now, I'm startin' to get scared," he said, a light tremble in his voice. He turned to look at her square in the eyes. "'Cos I'm not waking up," Hyde croaked out.

A few tears leaked escaped from her eyes and she held Hyde tightly as she felt him try to regain his lost composure. "Oh, Hyde," Donna cried softly. Wave after wave of guilt washed over her as she struggled to accept that, what was once a fun little habit, had now eradicated his life. This kind of thing was not supposed to happen to him, she thought. Not after the life he had led. To strangers who spent their lives jacked up on heroin, maybe. But not Hyde.

Not now.

----------

Donna had finally calmed him down and despite his initial protests that he should get out of her way and deal with his own problems; he relented and agreed to stay the night in the spare room. He hadn't so much relented as he had given in after being intimidated by a 5ft 10 pregnant lady.

As he lay in bed and went over his earlier discussion with Donna, Hyde found himself feeling a slight bit of relief for the first time since this nightmare had begun. Perhaps he was in fact just a crazy addict, or maybe not. Hyde momentarily considered the government being the real culprits behind this but that thought was gone just as quickly as it had come when he was told that they were too preoccupied with some wall in Germany to carry out their plans for creating pod people. "Pod people," Hyde thought again. Maybe Eric could help him out with this. If Eric was still speaking to him, that is. Even though they had yet to hold a serious conversation, Hyde was sure that their encounter on the front porch outside was not the result of Eric not getting any the night before. "_Gotta live with the consequences, buddy_." Hyde scoffed at the advice Fonzie was given last wee… or rather, 10 years ago last week.

Hyde groaned and rolled over, burying his face in the pillow. If only he could sleep. If only he could shut it all out. If only he could wake up tomorrow and be home again. _Calm down, Dorothy_ his mind told him.

"Oh, not you again," Hyde muttered to his ever-present, persistently-abusive mind.

Thankfully, he sensed his subconscious begin to take over as the sounds of street traffic were drowned out by his sudden fatigue, and Hyde felt himself lose awareness of his surroundings. But the peace was shattered when Hyde blinked and found that he was being poked in the side by a tiny little object.

Hyde opened his eyes.

Make that, a tiny little _boy_. Hyde blinked again. "Hey," he said groggily. The boy made no sound whatsoever and instead continued to stare at the strange man sleeping in his house. Hyde felt unnerved by the fixed stare of this toddler. "You're clearly not Forman's son," Hyde commented, as he thought of how flustered Eric would be by this point in trying to explain his actions.

All of a sudden, the child opened its mouth, and Hyde had spent enough time around cute loudmouths to know when a scream was coming. Evidently, he used to be married to one.

"_MOMMY!_"

Hyde covered his ears in pain. But she had never been that loud.

----------

After successfully calming down the second Y-chromosome-equipped person in her household, Donna carried her young son out of the kitchen and back up to his bedroom.

She tucked him in and returned to the spare room where Hyde was now wide awake. She smiled sheepishly. "Sorry about that. I should have warned you about how he is with strangers."

Hyde grinned. "Don't worry about it. Being woken up to a tiny person screaming their lungs to death? Feels like home." Donna picked up on the sadness in his voice and she touched his hand to remind him that he wasn't alone anymore.

"Hey. We'll figure this out," she assured him. Hyde nodded. "I'll see you in the morning, OK?" Hyde nodded again. She smiled. "OK then."

Left alone again, Hyde was too awake to get any form of rest so he settled on taking the next logical step in his mission to finding the truth. He started digging through personal belongings.

Into the small hours Hyde quietly searched through drawers and bags and photographs. And as helpful as some of it was, nothing could prepare him for what he was moments away from discovering.

_To be continued… _

----------

**A/N:** Truth be told, this chapter is a little shorter than my chapters normally are but it was essential if it was to ever end. I rewrote this so many times because so much of it was written when I was really sick so I hope you enjoyed it.

P.S. For anybody that didn't already know, I wrote a Valentine's Day story for Jackie and Hyde and it is pure smut. :p Check it out.

Stay safe.


	8. Heaven and Hell

**The Morning After… what?**

Chapter 8 – Heaven and Hell.

**A/N: **Hey everybody. I am living under an assumed identity in the Greek Islands for fear of being tracked down and hung by the balls by the zennie girls I angered last time. But I have a show to do, so here is chapter 8 for you all. (And guys, it may or may not be a dream, but I'm still writing flashbacks. Hehe). I tried to balance the bad memories with some not-so-bad memories here.

Happy reading!

**Disclaimer: **Own nothing.

**Warning:** Language.

_**Previously…**_

_Into the small hours Hyde quietly searched through drawers and bags and photographs. And as helpful as some of it was, nothing could prepare him for what he was moments away from discovering._

_To be continued…_

----------

**3 HOURS EARLIER**

**JACKIE'S APARTMENT**

"Ugh!"

Jackie stared in amazement at the receiver in her hand as she processed the fact that she had just be hung up on by her amnesia-stricken, doped up, frustratingly hot, ex-husband. She looked up when there was a soft knock at her bedroom door, but before she could answer, Kate and Fez walked in looking alarmed.

Kate knelt down beside her. "Jackie, what's wrong?"

Jackie scoffed. "Nothing. Just stupid Steven being a stupid jerk." Fez rolled his eyes tiredly.

"Ai, not this again." Jackie glared.

"Whatever," she whispered fiercely, "I'm sure he will call back with an apology soon enough." Fez and Kate laughed fakely.

"Jackie, I'm sorry," Kate started, still chuckling, "but I've never met the guy and even I know him well enough to know that that is just not happening."

Jackie crossed her arms in a huff. "Well, whatever. I'm not going to let him ruin our night. Why don't you two go see if the popcorn is ready?" she suggested, wanting a few moments alone.

The pair looked at each other, unsure, but agreed and went out, leaving Jackie sitting against the foot of her bed with her arms hugging her knees tightly.

Jackie allowed the bitchiness to take a momentary lapse as she felt droplets of worry begin to slide their way back into her mind.

Whatever Donna was saying, no matter how logical it may seem in this current situation, Jackie still could not quite get her head around it. In the 20 years she had known Hyde, she had witnessed him being teased mercilessly about how he was the resident stoner of Point Place and the biggest waster in Wisconsin. Truth be told, she had once upon a time been one of those teasers and over the past year or so, she had begun to readapt her old ways. But it wasn't because of how much she might despise him. It was because it helped her forget… the way he had done so, back in those darker days…

----------

_**FORMAN LIVING ROOM**_

"_Jacqueline Burkhart, will you marry me?"_

_Although this wasn't a secret proposal, the room froze as everyone waited for what they thought would be the beginning of yet another long-winded engagement._

_Jackie finally spoke. "Oh, Michael!" she cooed, "No."_

_Fez beamed. "Congratu...What the hell?" he finished, speechless._

_Jackie bit her lip as she watched surprise and confusion pass across her first love's face. "No?" he asked softly. Jackie shook her head sadly._

"_No."_

_But Kelso took everybody by surprise when he stood up and engulfed Jackie in an enormous hug. "Jackie, you have just made me the happiest man in the WORLD!"_

_Jackie laughed, breathless. "Really?"_

"_Yeah!" Kelso exclaimed. "Oh, man, I mean, I love you and all, but, it's like...this is like the **worst** idea I've ever had! And I have had some bad ideas! I mean, a fire-crackersuit?! Like what the hell was that?" he questioned, as the lunacy of his past scheme finally began to catch up with him._

"_The best 4th of June ever, that's what," Hyde interjected._

_But Jackie paid no attention to her slurring ex who had his arm draped around a bleached, tan STD spokeswoman. She only had eyes for the first man to ever steal her heart, and make her realize that she shouldn't settle for comfort simply out of loneliness. "Michael, if you and I got married it would be a disaster," she told him. "I mean I love you, but you have so much growing up to do." Kelso smiled, thinking she was finished. But he forgot this was Jackie Burkhart, and that she was never finished when somebody thought she was. "Oh and I **do not** want a box of puppies running around."_

_Kelso nodded emphatically. "You see, and I do!" _

"_I know!"_

_Kelso came down from his high as reality began to kick in._

"_Oh man! This is like my life is finally taking off. I'm moving to Chicago!" he shouted, surprising his friends who found that they would suffer yet another crushing blow to what had already been some of the toughest months of their lives._

_Jackie bit her finger and turned to her best friend for reassurance. "Donna, I hope I did the right thing." Before Donna couple open her mouth, Kelso provided an answer for her._

"_I'm so happy, I'm gonna jump off the roof!" _

_Donna turned back to Jackie. "You did the right thing," she told her with a laugh._

_Jackie scratched the back of her head lightly. "Yeah," she replied, suddenly not-so-sure. Jackie allowed herself to steal a quick glance at Hyde, and couldn't help but seek his opinion of recent events._

_She took a brave step forward and stood next to Fez for support when she saw Hyde's right hand still firmly clasped in his wife's. She took a deep breath. "So Steven, you must be relieved to finally see there is nothing between me and Michael anymore."_

_Hyde stared blankly, and blinked in mock awareness. "Oh, sorry, what was that, Jackie? I couldn't hear what you were saying on account of me focusing on how my wife's ass feels in my hand. A lot better than yours, to be honest."_

_The burn went straight over Jackie's head as she realized how little it took to antagonize him these days. The days without her had clearly not been kind to his wit. But an easily antagonized Hyde just meant an even easier responsive Jackie._

"_Oh, I'm sure it is. What with your head stuck so far up it and all."_

"_Ooh!" Fez whispered excitedly. "Good one, Jackie." Jackie smirked at his allegiance. Unlike some people, she thought, her eyes traveling to Donna._

_Hyde clicked his tongue. "Come on, Sam. I wanna see how those new earrings I bought, look on you."_

"_Ugh!" Jackie exclaimed, quickly losing her cool. "You bought her jewelry?"_

_Hyde smiled innocently. "Well, I'm not gonna lower my standards for her or anything," he said, leading Sam out through the kitchen door with._

_----------_

And the worst part, Jackie thought, was that she would readily relive those days if it meant not having to suffer through watching him lose everything that mattered to him in the present. She snapped out of her thoughts of days gone by, when she heard some yelling in the next room… which could only mean one thing. She got up to investigate and saw both her friends sitting Indian style in the middle of her living room and

"For the last time, Fez. No, you cannot touch my popcorn, or my boob!"

Jackie grimaced. "Don't tell me he's hitting on you?" she prodded.

Kate scoffed. "Well, if you call trying to touch my boobs and telling me how great my underwear feels, hitting on me…"

"Yep, that's Fez for you," Jackie stated.

Fez sat with his arms folded. "This is not fair. Here I am at a slumber party with two single women, and instead of them being grateful for some male attention, what do I get? Nothing!" Jackie sighed.

"Kate, let him feel your boob."

"No!" she yelled, horrified. "And why are you encouraging him?"

"_Because_," she said in a sing-song voice, "it's the only way to stop him from hiding in your closet all throughout your teenage years. A time during which your body is going through a lot of uncomfortable things. Things growing, things getting bigger, but **not** always at the same time, I might add. And then there are per-"

"Ew, Jackie!" Kate yelled. "God, stop talking about that."

"Oh, don't listen to her," Fez interrupted, glaring at Kate. He turned back to Jackie. "Continue," he begged eagerly.

Jackie sighed and grabbed a hair pin from the coffee table, tying her hair back into a ponytail. "Why is it everytime I am around one of you, I end up talking about something I really don't want to be talking about?" she questioned.

Kate leaned into Fez and asked quietly, "Is that some sort of Hyde segue?"

"You're catching on quick," Fez stated. Kate clapped her hands excitedly until she noticed the glare they were receiving from Jackie. _Sorry,_ she mouthed.

Jackie let out a breath. "Steven is having some problems." Fez immediately looked strickened.

"Ai, no,"

Jackie rubbed his arm soothingly. "Don't worry, Fez. He's gonna be fine. Just needs some help jogging his memory."

"_Memory_?" Kate queried. "What, does he have amnesia or something?" she joked. The grave look on Jackie's face did not falter. "Oh."

Fez looked between the two women. "W-what is it?" he stuttered.

"I don't know," Jackie whispered. "Donna just said that he was having trouble remembering some things, but I'm sure it's nothing serious." Fez played nervously with his hands.

"How can we help him?" he asked worriedly. Jackie shrugged.

"I tried talking to him earlier, but he didn't want to speak to me." Jackie's voice shook slightly. "I really hate when guilt sneaks up on you like this."

"Guilt?" Fez asked, surprised.

"Because of how she acted towards him," Kate reminded him. Fez stared at her in awe.

"You are getting better and better…"

Jackie barreled on. "But Donna is going to call me in the morning and we're gonna try and figure out what to do."

Kate looked from Jackie to Fez. "So… what do we do now?"

Jackie picked up her glass of wine from the coffee table. "Now, we drink. Now, we try and have some fun. There's nothing else we can do tonight." They nodded in agreement, but they still couldn't find it in themselves to joke right now. They always ended up coming back to Hyde.

"Hey," Fez called, attracting their attention, "do you remember," he indicated to Jackie, "the day Eric got lost in the woods and I tried to help you and Hyde get over each other?" Jackie thought for a moment and then her entire face lit up with nostalgia.

"Oh my God! A-and then we just started going at it on the couch!" Jackie remembered, breaking down into laughter. "God, that was such a long time ago!"

"You're telling me!" Fez bellowed. "I haven't seen three hornier people since!"

"Yeah!" Jackie replied, still laughing. Suddenly, though, she stopped. "Wait, what do you mean three?"

Fez continued laughing, albeit nervously, and simply looked between the two women, praying for a way out of this. "Well, ah…"

Jackie's mouth dropped open in disgust. "Ew! You were watching us?" Fez rolled his eyes.

"You act like that's the first time," he reminded her.

"The first time in the basement!" Jackie narrowed her eyes at him. "Wasn't it?" Fez gulped. "Oh my God, ew, ew, ew, ew, EW!"

Kate laughed. "You really dated him?"

"Yeah. But after I dated Steven," Jackie told her.

"But before she was over Hyde and after she almost got engaged to Kelso," Fez piped in.

"_And_ after we had already lived together for a few months," Jackie continued.

"And worked together."

"And after you had slept with every girl in Point Place."

"And after I dyed your hair green."

"And after I wrote on your car that you had a tiny-"

Kate stood up warily. "I need a drink."

Seeing her stumble off into the kitchen, Fez shook his head sadly. "New Yorkers. They think they've seen it all, don't they?"

Jackie shook her head too. "It's so sad." Fez looked back at her.

"Jackie, really, what is wrong?" She eyed him. He looked so scared.

"Fez, I really don't know what is wrong with Steven." She looked down at her wine glass. "I just know that it's pretty bad. And that he'll need our help to get through this."

"And what about you?" he asked gently.

Jackie was taken aback. "Me? I'm fine. After all, I'm not the one with the memory problem, right?" Fez smiled. The pair sat in silence, even after Kate returned and passed out on the floor. Each consumed with their own thoughts to the point where it felt as if they were two lone drifters occupying the same bench for just one evening, before fate decided it had had enough and brought their experience to a shuddering halt. This was at least, how Fez was seeing things. His odd habit of staying silent for large amounts of time meant that the little things that came out of his mouth were usually enough to tide people over until they were hungry for some more of his unique wit.

However, Jackie was still stuck one seemingly one-way trip to memory lane. With Hyde in such a vulnerable state, it reminded her of some of the times he had no chance but to depend on her.

----------

"_Hello?" Jackie called out to the apparently empty basement. "Huh," Jackie muttered. Seeing the new issue of Vogue sitting on the table, Jackie quickly forgot about the strangeness of having the basement entirely to herself for once. _

_She settled herself on Hyde's chair and immediately began flipping through the magazine for anything out of interest when suddenly; she heard a distant groan coming from the back of the basement. Jackie placed the magazine back on the table and listened intently to see if she could hear anything. _

_Just as she was about to give up and return to finding out the 5 quickest ways to change your hair from straight to wavy, she heard the sound again, this time accompanied with a series of scratchy coughs._

"_What the…" She dumped the magazine on the couch and wandered across the basement to the door of her boyfriend's bedroom. Never one for courtesy's, Jackie pushed open the door without knocking and gasped when she saw him half-hanging off the bed and his wife-beater soaked through with sweat. "Oh my God, Steven!"_

_Ever the alarmist, she rushed over to him and pulled him back onto the bed with surprising ease. She kneeled down worriedly beside him._

"_Steven, you haven't been keeping your stash behind the toilet again, have you? Because that's exactly how **it **got infected the last time," she scolded._

_Hyde frowned, but broke into a coughing fit. "No, Jackie!" He tried feebly to sit up but he just dropped back down again._

_Jackie put a hand to his forehead but snapped it back quickly in horror. "Wait! You're hot!"_

"_Not so bad yourself," he said with a leer. On instinct, Jackie smacked him on the chest._

"_Ow!" he complained. Jackie grimaced._

"_Oh, sorry!" Jackie rubbed his chest softly. "I just don't think I've ever seen you sick before," she commented. Hyde attempted to scoff that he wasn't anything of the sort, but it quickly became a gasp for air when he began coughing uncontrollably. Jackie rolled her eyes and smacked him harshly on the back. Hyde yelped in pain._

"_What the hell did you do that for?" he yelled._

_Jackie shrugged her shoulders innocently. "It what's my parents always did when I was sick."_

_Hyde took a deep breath. "Jackie, your parents were pod people from the planets 'Con' and 'Gold-digger'. I hardly think they knew how to take care of a sick kid. And for the record," Hyde twisted his neck in pain, "I'm not sick." Jackie stood up and placed her hands on her hips defiantly._

"_Oh, is that so?" she asked disbelievingly. Hyde nodded between coughs. "Well, if that's so, go get me my Vogue from the coffee table."_

_Hyde managed a scoff this time. "Like I'd do that even if I wasn't sick." Jackie frowned._

"_Dammit, bad example," she muttered. She looked at him again and realized that they could play mind games later. "Look Steven, you're sick. And you need cough drops and hot water bottles and, and lots of fluids-"_

"_Oh, don't say fluids!" Hyde grimaced. "I've had a gallon full ready to leak out for about an hour but I was too tired to move."_

_Jackie turned up her nose. "Ew!" Hyde laughed._

"_Yeah, you'll do great on that nursing course, Jacks." She frowned._

"_It is not a **nursing** course, Steven." She sat down on the edge of the bed. "It is just something to keep me busy until school starts up again."_

"_Whatever," Hyde muttered, turning on his side away from her. Jackie rolled her eyes. She may not be an expert at dealing with a flu-stricken boyfriend, but she was certainly well-versed in handling a cranky one._

"_OK, firstly. We need to get you out of those clothes."_

_Hyde groaned. "Not now, Jackie. I'm not in the mood." He turned his head sharply. "Did I really just say that?" he asked, stunned._

"_Not for sex, you hornball," she scolded. "Your clothes are soaked through with sweat and you can't stay in them." She stood up. "Now, I'm going to go get you something to drink and to tell everybody not to come in. And when I come back, I want to see you in nothing but your boxers."_

"_Just like our first time," he volleyed back._

_Jackie laughed. "At least **you** didn't have to make me a banner." She leaned down and rested one hand on his curly head, giving him a kiss on his forehead. "I'll be back in a minute, baby," she whispered soothingly and she skipped out of the room._

_Hyde groaned when, in what to him felt like only a few seconds, Jackie bounded back down the stairs and walked quickly into his room where she put down on his bedside table, a hot water bottle, a cloth, a clean blanket and a jug of water. "Here we go," she said, settling it down. She turned to Hyde. "Steven! I told you to get out of those clothes!" He covered his eyes tiredly._

"_Give me a break, you were only gone for like 10 seconds." Jackie put her hand on her hip._

"_More like 20 minutes." She cocked her head. "Wow, this must be worse than I thought. Oh well, I'll just have to undress you myself then," she announced cheerily. She stepped forward and pulled back the covers. "Oh," she sounded, surprised. Hyde looked down._

"_What?"_

_Jackie shrugged her shoulders. "Nothing. It's just that's the first time I've pulled back your covers and seen you so…" She thought of how she could word this appropriately. "…deflated," she finished. Hyde considered this._

"_Yeah… but to be fair, the sweat is kind of weighing me down," he chimed. She nodded in agreement._

"_Steven, why is it everytime we talk about something, we end up talking about your penis?"_

_Hyde grinned. "It makes quite an impression, doesn't it?" Jackie rolled here eyes and tried to stop a smile from making its way across her face._

"_Even when you're a mess, you're still you," she said teasingly. She knelt down. "Now come on, help me pull you up," she instructed. Hyde grimaced and placed his hands on the wall behind him and pushed himself up as Jackie maneuvered his legs into a sitting position. Jackie patted his head. "Good boy."_

_She stood up again and grabbed the hem of his wife-beater, slowly releasing it from his sweat-soaked chest and pulling it up over his head. Exposed to the cold, Hyde began to shiver and he rubbed his shoulders to try and keep some heat in his body, despite his temperature still running high. Jackie grabbed the blanket from his table and wrapped it around his shoulders, allowing Hyde to busy himself while she struggled to remove his bottoms. She said a silent thanks that he wasn't wearing any jeans today because that would have only added to the current problems._

_Divesting him of everything but his underwear, Jackie stated happily, "There. All better!"_

_Hyde smiled when he noticed that Jackie was oblivious to her position of kneeling down on the floor in front of him, spreading his legs while he sat clad only in his boxers. "Well don't let me stop you," he commented. Jackie looked puzzled but soon caught on to what he was referring to._

"_Shut up, you pig," she said, slapping his leg lightly._

_She grabbed the jug of water and pulled out a straw from her back pocket, placing it in his mouth. "Now take a drink." Begrudgingly, he leant forward and began sipping from the jug, but the ache in his throat meant that he had to stop before he could even swallow much of anything. Jackie grimaced at his obvious discomfort and pulled the jug away before he hurt himself even more. "OK, come on, just lie back and take it easy."_

_Despite having every inch of his body aching with pain, Hyde slowly moved back and slid back down on the bed, expecting to hear some complaints from Jackie the minute his head hit the pillow. But instead, he felt her shift him across the bed a little and lie down beside him, drawing his head into her chest. He sighed contentedly when she began playing with his hair softly and scratching at the base of his neck. Because he liked it that way._

_Sickness be damned. His girlfriend was taking care of him._

_And he liked it._

_----------_

And Jackie had definitely liked taking care of him. She remembered lying with him like that for hours until Kitty had returned from work with the cough drops, and they had been forced to move them. Even if it had only been a week after they had reunited, that day was still one of Jackie's favourite memories when it came to her relationship with Hyde. Not least because when he had finally felt better, he had been more than happy to reward her for her services and informed her that he was sure there was a nurses uniform hanging in Laurie's wardrobe in case she felt like a repeat performance.

Things like that really made her love him. But sometimes it felt as if there were just as many things that made her hate him.

Jackie sighed and picked up her now empty wine glass, smiling at her two friends who were now both passed out on her living room floor. She walked into the kitchen and deposited their glasses, figuring the dishes could wait until the morning. Glancing at her wristwatch, she figured she had better get to bed before it was even closer to morning than it already was. She walked into the bathroom and grabbed some spare pillows and blankets, which she dropped next to Kate and Fez, in case they woke up and fancied sleeping on somewhere other than a hard, wooden floor.

Jackie turned out the lights and set her alarm for 6am, deciding that would give her just enough time to get some rest bring order to her apartment, and talk to Donna before going to work and finding out just who had been the lucky winner of the competition. Groaning, Jackie sat on her bed and ran her hands through her hair tiredly. She really didn't have time for a crappy promotional gimmick right now. It may have seemed like an OK idea at first, but her priorities had shifted quite considerably in the last few hours. Then again it didn't take all that much to shift her priorities. Just like they had done so back then.

----------

_She silently slid her key into the lock, turning it slowly until she was able to twist the doorknob and enter the spacious apartment she shared with her husband._

_She dropped her bag and, without so much as a sound, shut the door, took off her coat, and dropped her keys in the dish. She hoped the living room was empty so that she could sneak into bed without him noticing. But when she walked into the dark room and saw his silhouette resting against the wall on the other side of the room, she knew she was not going to get away again._

"_I was at work," she told him, skipping the pleasantries._

_He didn't flinch. "I know."_

_She toyed nervously with her fingers. "So, why are we standing here?"_

_He kicked himself off the wall and moved towards the couch where he leant his arms forward. He fixed his eyes on her. "It's 2am and you didn't even call to say when you would be home."_

_She let out a breath. "I got caught up-"_

"_Don't feed me that," he said bitingly._

_Jackie looked down at her hands. "Well, what do you want me to say?"_

_He rocked back and forth slightly. "The truth."_

_She looked at him. "Steven, that is the truth. I have a big presentation tomorrow and Esther wanted a lot of changes, so I had to stay late."_

_He fell into silence and Jackie wondered whether he was deciding to believe her or not. "What changes?" he asked suddenly. Jackie blinked._

"_Uh, just some sketches needed to be redone." _

_She still couldn't see anything but his shadow, but she could see him nodding mechanically._

"_And to do a sketch, do you just need a lamp, paper and some pencils?"_

_Jackie slowly nodded. "Yeah, that's pretty much it."_

"_We have all that here." _

_Jackie swallowed. "Yeah, but-"_

"_And you know what else we have here?" he asked, moving away from the couch and walking closer to her." Jackie bit her lip. He stopped right in front of her and the light from a streetlamp outside caught him, causing the ghastly shade to illuminate his deadened face. "Me," he stated sharply. Jackie inched back a step but without realizing, she had pressed herself practically against the wall and was left with nowhere to go. "But I guess you just didn't want to be here," he whispered, his breath tickling her face. Jackie closed her eyes._

"_Steven..."_

_Hyde swiftly lifted his left hand, and seeing her flinch, he slowly brushed his index finger along her cheek, chilled from the cold. Staring at her still face, Hyde took in her slender, well-coiffed features. Her hair, which never failed to be perfectly set. Her eyebrows, which were always perfectly plucked. Her nose, which was slender but full. And her lips, which practically breathed sex. Hyde felt his composure begin to weaken and used his hand, which was holding her face in place, to jerk her forward and crush his lips down onto hers, gnawing and biting at her lips for easy access to her mouth. She gasped at his roughness and he took this opportunity to slide his tongue into her open mouth, grinding against her hips as he felt her begin to reciprocate the kiss._

_Without breaking the kiss, Hyde lifted her up and wrapped her legs around his waist, slamming her into the wall and biting at her neck as he used both his hands to rip open the top of her skirt, allowing him to throw it away and begin working on her underwear. Jackie bit harsly at his ear and ran her hands along the white shirt she had bought him just the week before. Remembering she still had the receipt, Jackie grabbed the middle of the shirt and split it open, revealing his hairy and well-defined chest. Hyde dropped his head back as he felt her leave a trail of kisses along his pecs and nip teasingly at his nipple, providing him with just the rush he needed to grab her by the hips and throw her down on the dining table next to him. Hyde leant over her and found her mouth again, reveling in the feeling of her hands tangling in his hair and running down along his back. Hyde moved his head down to her blouse and with his teeth, ripped apart the buttons and swiftly flung it across the room. Clad in only her bra and thong, Hyde dipped his head into her breast, seeking out her nipple through the thin layer of silk and all the while grabbing a firm hold of her thigh, running his hand up and down it while teasingly sliding his finger into her soaking wet underwear._

_Jackie pulled his head closer to his chest as he worked at removing her bra and flicked the tip of his tongue at her nipples, making her beg for more contact. When she felt his finger slide beneath her thong, she couldn't stop herself from screaming out his name and every other obscenity she could think of._

"_Fuck, Jackie," he growled as he spread her wetness across her thighs. He took his finger out and smeared it along her lips, letting her taste for herself what was driving him so crazy._

_When it happened, she wasn't sure, but Jackie now lay completely naked as she rushed to unbutton his jeans and slide them as far down his hips as she could manage right now. Seeing his erection nearly bursting through his boxers, she grabbed a hold of his 8 inch member and squeezed it for all his worth. Hyde moaned loudly and reached out to grab a chunk full of her hair, pulling her head closer and kissing her roughly as she worked her way along his shaft. Finally, she pulled his boxers down, and Hyde felt free to start roaming what he had claimed as is the moment Kelso had decided to fuck off to California for 8 weeks._

_They both groaned at the first feeling of their naked bodies sliding against each other, just waiting to experience as much contact as possible. Hyde broke the kiss and moved his head back to her breasts, where he alternated between licking and sucking while brushing himself against her slick opening. This teasing and feather-light brushes brought Jackie to an all-too-soon climax and she dug her fingers into her scalp as she felt waves of pleasure rush over her._

_Not giving her a moment's break, Hyde roughly moved off her, flipped her on her stomach, and entered her from behind, spreading her legs as far as they would go and developing a fast-paced rhythm of thrusting as she was still coming down from her high. Hyde's thighs flexed with each thrust and he slammed himself harder and harder into her, until her heavy panting finally sent him over the edge and caused him to collapse on her back, exhausted._

_Neither Hyde nor Jackie could calm themselves long enough to take a deep breath, and Hyde nuzzled her hair as he sought out her hand to take hold of. Jackie, unwilling to let her husband move out of her just yet, wrapped her feet around his legs and grabbed onto his hand tightly._

_-----------_

Jackie wished she could look back on that night more happily, but for them, they both knew that it was the first time they had used sex to avoid dealing with a problem – a habit they would regularly find themselves falling into until even that began to get old.

For Jackie and Hyde, that had been the beginning of the end.

----------

**A/N:** OK, so I probably should have added smut as a warning as well, but then it wouldn't have been a nice little surprise now, would it? Just like my V-Day story, I can't believe I even posted smut in the first place but it has a habit of just coming out of nowhere. Well, that's all we have time for this chapter. For those of you wanting to know what Hyde found that was so disturbing, you're just going to have to wait until next time. D

Stay safe.


	9. Almost There

**The Morning After… what?**

Chapter 9 – Almost There.

**A/N: **Hey everybody. Sorry about the wait. The writing bug and I agreed to a trial separation but we had a one-night stand and this was the result. I watched the Season 1 Prom episode because I needed the name of the song Jackie and Hyde danced to and I think it is Free Bird by Lynyrd Skynyrd but somebody can correct me if it is not. It might be good to listen to it during the final scene because I think the first 2/3 minutes of the song create a very fitting atmosphere.

And one last thing – over at the That '70s Show boards on fanforum dot com, there is a "Best of Zen Fanfic" thing going on where we can submit out ten favourite JH stories written since September 2004. Please head on over there and make this competition worthwhile.

Thanks.

**Disclaimer: **Own nothing.

**Warning:** Language.

_**Previously…**_

_Into the small hours Hyde quietly searched through drawers and bags and photographs. And as helpful as some of it was, nothing could prepare him for what he was moments away from discovering…_

----------

**SOME TIME EARLIER**

Despite his best efforts, Hyde couldn't suppress a boyish chuckle as he stared at photos of himself, Eric and Kelso at Funland, back when the theme park still had a reason worth going to. But when Hyde thought of Funland, he thought of the guy in the doggie costume. And when he thought of the guy in the doggie costume, he thought of Jackie… and that never ended well. Moving on, Hyde came across a stack of shots which he had never seen before. Some looked to be from Eric's college graduation, others merely random shots' providing further proof that Donna was no 'Kitty Forman'.

Seeing that he had run out of photos and had not gained any useful information other than that Eric liked to dress up as Luke Skywalker when he was being provided with a graduates diploma, Hyde rubbed his eyes tiredly and pushed himself off the floor, his legs stiff from kneeling on the uncarpeted floor for so long. Hyde bent backwards to untie the knot that was beginning to form at the base of his spine, and he grimaced when a pain shot up towards his neck. Groaning, he shut his eyes and walked haphazardly across the room, rubbing his neck delicately. No longer under the bright light of the midnight-moon, Hyde unknowingly tripped over a tiny carrier-bag which lay open on the floor.

"Fuck," he growled lowly. Hyde plopped down on the bed and yawned loudly, staring tiredly at the contents of the bag. Using his left hand to rub the sleep from his eyes, he reached down and gathered the items into his other hand, scooping them up and depositing them on the bedspread next to him. He flinched when he heard distant sounds of a scratching against his door, but he put it down to his overused imagination and returned to his snooping. Flicking through quickly, Hyde saw that there were no photographs in this pile but simply a bound pack of letters, each with the same handwriting. Her handwriting.

He could almost feel the blood rush from his head as he clumsily tore off the elastic holding the letters together. He unfolded the top letter and scanned through it quickly, disappointed to see that it was nothing more than a recount of her trip to California and how Laguna Beach was the perfect companion to her skin tone. But he had been well-trained in developing a resistance to Jackie's superficial chatter and he forged ahead with the reading. But as he read, he noticed the happier comments becoming sparse, the difficult days being mentioned more frequently, and a large number of the letters leaving strong hints that they were accompanied by a hangover. That's when he started reading aloud.

"_And the bouncer just kicked me out! What is this world coming to? I mean, suddenly, fat guys with bad hair are the ones with all the power while we beautiful girls are being groped and touched just because we feel a dancing floor shouldn't exclude bar tops! Ugh! I just hope this club we're going to tonight is better. I need to forget all about today. This bag lady tried to charge me double for a bottle of Smirnoff! Bitch. I made sure she got fired, but it has made me really stressed. Hopefully Jack will make it all better. ")_

_Bye, Bigfoot!"_

Jackie had always had the unique ability to pull the rug out from under his feet and make him question just how crazy the person was that he was dating. But binge drinking far succeeded cutting all his boxers into tightey whiteys so that she could she all he had to offer when he was putting on his jeans. Hyde placed the letter back onto the bed and, his fingers shaking slightly; he unfolded the next one from the pile and began reading.

"_Hey, Donna!_

_I know I haven't written in a while but Mulk and I were at his friend's cabin and things got a little crazy, so we went on a bit of a road trip. God, we hit so many bars! You would have loved it!"_

Hyde's head hurt. Boyfriends weren't the kind of thing he wanted to know about. Hoping to find something more appeasing, Hyde put the letter down and looked at the next one.

"… _So I went to this wine taster in Death Valley, and it was fabulous! I got so hammered that I ended up staying the night with a trucker named Bubba._

_Just kidding! Bubba? Ew! His name was James. But I wasn't kidding about being hammered! We got so wasted that we ended up finding this priest in the middle of the Nevada desert, and you know what happened? Well… let's just say that Mr. Minuteman and his walking skank of a vagina aren't the only ones who can live it up in the beautiful town that is Vegas. YAY! But we got it annulled. James can't leave the Ice Capades and I'm still trying to get this club off the ground._

_Keep being boring!"_

Hyde swallowed. "Married, huh?" he whispered dryly. Deciding that he had experienced quite enough surprises to last a lifetime, Hyde put the letter face down on the bed, fingering the heart Jackie used to sign off with, which could still be felt on the other side of the paper. He lay horizontally across the bed and covered his face with his hands. This was a nightmare. But psychologists had said that in order for us to beat our subconscious issues, we first have to learn the meaning behind them. So, having taken a few more moments to gather his composure, Hyde pushed himself off the bed and began reading again, this time determined to see the letters through.

But it didn't get any easier.

"_Um, I don't know if I should even be writing this, considering how painfully clear you made your feelings about me in your last letter._

'_Jackie? Are you sure you don't have a drinking problem?' – Very nice way to show concern, my BFF. But let me tell you right now – I do not have a drinking problem! God! A girl has a few drinks and suddenly her friends think she should be in dank, crappy decorated basements with lousy food and uninteresting people. If I wanted that, I would have never left Point Place. Now, maybe I have been going out a bit more, but I am under a lot of stress with my job, Donna. And I can't exactly let people down who expect me to be there. The way you don't seem to be there for me anymore._

_I'm fine, Donna. Everything's fine."_

**Next.**

"_Well, I can appreciate concern, Donna. But I don't need you worrying about me all the time. Worry about yourself because YOU are the one who is pregnant here, remember?_

_Anyway, I'm done with HartStop because it just became too much administration and in the end, I think it will just stop working for me. I'm now thinking of a museum. Something classy to shove in Steven's face. But then, he already has the pornstache to worry about. How big is that thing by now? 5, 6 inches? It's almost as big as something else Steven likes to flaunt._

_But, alas, I will not dwell. I'm going out tonight (and no, not to a bar! To a friend's house)._

_And no more telling me what I can't talk about, especially if I have to listen to everything you want to talk about._

_See ya."_

**Next.**

"_Hey, Donna._

_I know it's been a while since I last wrote, but…"_ The ink was smudged and it took Hyde a few glances to realise that Jackie had been crying when she wrote this. "_...I've just been really busy and the bank is breathing down my neck constantly for not paying my student loans. Maybe I should start hanging around street corners. We might even find out where Laurie and Sam have whored off to. Just kidding. Don't tell Steven I said that. After all, Laurie was practically a sister to him._

_So I was thinking I might come down and see you guys before the big move." _Another ink smudge, Hyde noticed with concern. _"It's been such a long time since I've seen you guys and to be honest, I'm feeling a little bit suffocated from having Fez sleeping on my couch 24/7._

_But, I do miss you guys. All of you. Let me know if there's a good time is for you._

_Bye!_

**Next.**

_Next weekend is great! I'll see you guys then! Gotta run._

_xx._

Hyde smirked. No ink smudges in this letter. He scanned quickly through the next one, and sighed when he saw his name mentioned one too many times to be about anything positive. So he just recounted the more pointed bits.

"_That ASSHOLE!!!_

_I cannot believe I even thought we could be friends or at least be on speaking terms. Last time I try and reach out."_

"…_and when I asked him how he was doing, he said, "Why don't you go ask Jack Daniels. After all, he seems to be where you find all your answers these days." – Ugh! Jerk!"_

"…_and that slut was all over him when I was doing you-know-what with you-know-who in the you-know-where. Ugh. I hate him. And you know what the worst part was? He was wearing a turtleneck! The time without me has not been kind to his sense of style."_

A smile tugged at his mouth. "What am I gonna do about you?"

----------

He had went through every letter that he could lay his hands upon but none went past a certain date, and the last one had been just another rant about how he had screwed up her life and how she was going out to a bar yet again. She had signed the letter by giving Donna her new address, but seeing no further letters from Jackie, he grasped that the two of them hadn't been as chummy in recent years as he had originally thought. So Hyde decided to ask what was going on before he looked like a complete idiot again.

Now that he had a plan formalised, the early morning sun ceased to faze Hyde and sleep at long last began to take hold of him, to the point where only memories of years gone by occupied his mind.

Despite the whirlpool of events that came to mind, his favourite would always be the Prom – not that he would ever let such a fact be made public. The whole night felt like it had been a lifetime ago. It had also been the last time he could remember being with Jackie before all the tears and drama kicked off. It was just before the nurse and that summer. The summer which bore no resemblance to the previous one for their relationship.

But the prom had been perfect. They had been one of the last ones into the auditorium, and Jackie was still trying to get her zip all the way up when it came time for them to get their picture taken. But Hyde couldn't blame anybody but Jackie. She was the one who came into the basement, sat on his lap and revealed that she was wearing a pink garter underneath a $200 piece of silk. He had only done what any gentleman would do. He waited all of 7 seconds before throwing her over his shoulder, pounding up the stairs, thanking God that everybody was on their way to the school, and flipping her down onto the kitchen table before discovering just how sturdy wicker really is.

Then, when they finally made it, she had insisted Free Bird be played because it was the song they had danced to at his Junior Prom the year before, where he had shown for the first time that he had been harbouring an all-consuming love for her while he watched his best friend claim her as his own. And that's when Hyde suggested that she write children's stories because she had such a vivid and creative imagination. And being Jackie, she took the compliment without question. Hyde chuckled softly. He had a smile plastered across his face all night and if it hadn't been for Kelso's annual mooning, Hyde would have let slip three little words that would guarantee neither he nor Jackie would be able to walk that summer. And looking back, Hyde really wished he had said those words that night and not a week later when… **it** happened. Hyde groaned. He would never forget that, and it pissed him off to no end. He was able to forget most of what his parents ever said to him but he still couldn't forget one single detail of his night with the nurse. How he kissed her while revelling in the knowledge of how much this would hurt Jackie. How he undressed this woman and laid his mouth all over her smooth body, just praying that Jackie was calling him begging forgiveness for something he later realised she hadn't done. But what killed Hyde, was the memory of how badly he wanted Jackie to walk into the room while he was fucking this woman, so he could shatter her heart as she had done to his.

Hyde just wanted to forget. But first, he had to remember.

----------

**7AM**

_Bah, bah, bah.  
Ba-Babara-Ann  
Ba-ba-ba _

_Ba-Babara-Ann_

Mother and son swayed and slid along the kitchen floor as they sang and danced to the sound of The Beach Boys, despite still being dressed in their pyjamas.

Donna flipped the last of the pancakes onto the three plates she had put out and she proceeded to pour some freshly-squeezed orange juice, all the while oblivious to the entrance of a third person into the room.

"Live from Waltons' Mountain…"

Her whole body whipped round, her hand flying towards her chest. "Hyde! God, you scared me!"

Hyde laughed. "What the hell are you doing?"

Donna smacked him up the back of the head. "Language! There's a 4 year old here." Hyde looked past her and smiled uncomfortably at the tiny boy standing innocently with a wash towel in hand. Hyde looked back at Donna.

"He's fine," Hyde reassured her.

"Mommy?"

Donna turned around to face her son. "Yes, baby?"

"Who the hell is this man?"

Donna turned around to face Hyde. "Start running."

----------

"I didn't realise a pregnant woman could hit so har- OW!" Hyde grimaced in pain while Donna smiled innocently from her perch above his seat where she was holding a cloth to his bleeding forehead.

"Well, Easton's immune system seems to be using Red's stubbornness and Kitty's resistance to alc- special juice," she corrected, seeing that her son was within earshot. Hyde grinned. "I'm hoping all my kids will be as resilient."

Hyde nodded. "Strength and resistance were probably recessive in Forman's genes." Hyde took the cloth from her hand and stood up, walking away from her and looking curiously out the living room window to the large expanse of land which he guessed housed college students and young families, like the one he was currently crashing with. Hyde noticed there was no car in the driveway. "Speaking of Forman…"

"He won't be back until later," Donna supplied. She walked over to Easton. "Come on, baby. It's time to go get dressed." Easton ignored her as any good son would do, and he continued colouring. "Easton…" she warned. Seeing that he still hadn't budged, Donna groaned and pressed the back of her hands to her eyes. Hyde stepped forward.

"Hey, buddy. I'm walking proof of what your mom can do when she's pis….tachio-craving." Easton's head snapped up and he bounded out of the room and up the stairs without a moment's hesitation. Donna gave him the thumbs up.

"You're already learning how to be a parent."

Hyde smiled. "Well, I learned from the best."

Donna laughed. "I'll tell Red and Kitty you said that."

"I was actually talking about Bud and Edna but it's probably less hassle to go with your idea." Donna laughed and kept chuckling to herself long after the expiration date of his joke. Hyde gave her a puzzled look. "What?"

Donna shook her head. "Nothing. I just, missed this," she told him honestly. Hyde stuffed his hands in his pockets and blew out a breath. "What?" she asked, uninterested. Hyde shrugged, and then remembered she couldn't see him.

"Nothin'." Donna turned to him with her arms folded and a stern look on her face. "Nothing," he told her again, "…much." Donna held her stance and Hyde, feeling intimidated, took a step back and sat down on the arm of the couch. He took a deep breath and ran his palm roughly along the worn denim on his jeans. "What would you think if a guy told you he had gone to bed one night and was happy… happier than he could ever remember being, but then woke up in a completely different world. It was 10 years later and everybody had moved on without him. His best friend didn't want to speak to him. His surrogate parents were tired of him mooching off of them. His job had turned him into a corporate bastard who hired girls who could best fill out a tube top. And his girlfriend, the first person he had ever thought wouldn't completely bug him if he decided to stay with him, had apparently dumped him after he married a Las Vegas stripper instead of her. But then the guy finds out about multiple broken marriages, alcohol addictions and a competition to win a date with his ex-wife." His eyes furrowed. "And he also couldn't stop thinking about what the hell an icebreaker is."

He looked up at Donna expectantly. "Well? What would you think if you heard about something like that?"

Donna stared at him blankly. "I'd think it was an episode from the last season of Happy Days." Hyde swore under his breath and stood up from the couch, frustrated that she wasn't taking him seriously. Donna walked towards him, amused. "Hyde, come on. I'm kidding." Hyde looked at her, holding back slightly. "Tell me what's wrong."

Hyde sat back down on the arm of the couch with his arms folded. "Well, you may remember me telling you about my little memory problem," he said, sniping.

"Don't be rude."

"Then don't be a sarcastic bitch," Hyde snapped. Donna blinked in shock. "I think I have taken enough crap about my life from you, from Forman, from Jackie, from everybody! Now, if you're going to help me, then tell me what I need to know, but if all you have to offer are sarcastic comments, then just let me know and I'll leave!"

Hyde was done. And the silence was deafening.

"Sorry I yelled," Hyde muttered.

Donna smiled weakly. "It's alright. I guess I deserved it." She stared back at him. "Hyde, what is it you need?"

Hyde closed his eyes. He took a deep breath. He opened his eyes.

And he spoke,

"Why are Jackie and I not together?"

"You got divorced." Hyde nodded.

"Yeah, but why?"

Donna looked around, unsure of how to answer. "Well, I wasn't exactly there when you two split up, but from what I gather it's because the two of you stopped communicating."

"You mean we once started?"

Donna smiled. "Now, who's being sarcastic?" He rolled his eyes playfully. Donna kicked at her feet. "Hyde, there's no one reason why any couple breaks up. Look at my Mom and my Dad. They had one of the most eccentric relationships I have ever heard of but it seemed to work…"

"Until Midge left." Donna lifted her head. He was staring straight at her and his eyes were sad.

"But then she came back."

"So, maybe there's still some hope for me and Jackie," Hyde teased. Donna smiled, but her lack of enthusiasm did not go unnoticed. "What?" he asked, intrigued. "What do you know?"

Donna shifted awkwardly and moved to sit down on a chair. "It's, uh…" she shrugged, "it's just that I don't think Jackie is in the 'dating' mood right now." She cleared her throat. "She hasn't even been with a guy in over a year."

Hyde laughed. "With all due respect, Donna, I'm just a 'guy' looking to date her. I'm her ex-husband. We're long past the pleasantries."

Donna nodded quickly. "Maybe," she added.

Her attitude had originally been puzzling but now it was just plain disconcerting. He stepped forward and she shifted slightly at the proximity of his looming figure. "Look, if you know something, just tell me. Don't make me waste anymore time wondering if I still have a shot with her if there's no chance."

Donna kept staring at a spot beyond his arm. She couldn't believe she was about to do this. She took a deep breath

"Hyde…" she started lowly and shakily, so he moved forward to hear her. "There's something about Jackie that no-one knows." She looked up to meet his worried stare with her own piercing one. "No-one… except me."

Hyde's face dropped. "Tell me," he pressed, his jaw set.

Donna folded her arms even tighter against her chest to fend off the unwelcome chill that was working its way up and down her arms. "I can't tell you what's wrong with her…" Hyde growled loudly and stormed tore his shades off, throwing them across the room and causing them to shatter against the wall, splitting in half. "…THIS TIME," she finished, cursing herself for betraying this much information.

Hyde snapped his head back at her. "What is that supposed to mean?"

Donna stood up defensively. "It means that what is going on now is because of something that we all thought she was over a long time ago, Hyde!"

Hyde bit his lip. "The drinking?"

She dropped her hands to her sides. "Yes, Hyde. The drinking. The blackouts. The rehab." She pushed a strand of hair behind her head. "Turns out they had a consequence none of us saw coming."

Hyde shrugged his shoulders blankly. "Well, what is it?"

Donna closed her eyes tiredly. "I can't tell you-"

"Dammit, Donna! She's my wife!"

"And that's exactly why I can't tell you!" She wiped her eyes with the back of her hand. "You should hear it from her. If you even want to hear it to begin with." Hyde walked towards her curiously. "I sure wish I hadn't," she finished sullenly.

Hyde pinched the bridge of his nose and shut his eyes closed to ward off the stress this was causing on his body. He felt like a 300lb weight was jumping up and down on his body. Hyde slowly regained his composure. "So, uh… I guess I'll go see Jackie," he decided. Donna shot towards him.

"Hyde, no! You cannot pressure her into telling you this. She needs to do it in her own time." Hyde was too busy planning how this would go to listen to sense. Sense had told him to stay away and give her space until he could prove he was a different person. Sense had told him that moving to New York would get him away from his old life. As far as Hyde was concerned, Sense could go suck the dwarfed cock it used to make decisions. Because he was going back to New York.

----------

**A CAB**

**SOMEWHERE ONLY THE DRIVER KNOWS**

The sun was nearly setting into its golden recluse when Jackie awoke from her slumber and gazed out into the early evening sky, with thoughts of how she had gotten to this point in her journey, and thoughts of what still lay ahead for her.

Her head wandered and found itself staring into the letter she held tightly in her right hand, the letter which had triggered in her memory the times when she could trust the people who loved her to help her when she couldn't help herself. When Donna had finally told her enough was enough and had taken action. It felt like something from one of those clichéd romantic comedies where the sun, the setting… the soul, was at such peace, that not even near agony could disrupt the harmony.

But Jackie had always been a sucker for romantic comedies

----------

_Why did lime walls always remind her of her mother's skin after a night out with her friends from the "gin rummy" team? And why couldn't convicts do what they were born to do and just pick up the garbage as opposed to eating it, as the case seemed to be when she passed through the parking lot of her new home. The vehicle pulled to a stop_

"_We're here."_

"_I can see that," Jackie answered, her eyes never leaving the bum on the side of the road. "You would think with how much money this place costs, they could at least afford to hire some custodial workers." She smiled at the deep breath she heard followed by a quietly spoken, "1, 2, 3…" She looked across the car. "Maybe we should just go in?" she suggested._

"_First smart thing you have said the whole car journey."_

_Jackie stuck her tongue out. "I guess I was always too put off by how ugly you dress to notice how funny you are!" she laughed._

"_You know you're only laughing because a sucker like me will be the one carrying in your bags from the car."_

_Jackie opened her door and climbed out of the car excitedly. "I can't wait to see my new place! I hope it has a nice view."_

"_You haven't already been in it?" Jackie shook her head._

"_No. I couldn't even think of living anywhere else until I said goodbye to my old place. Too many memories." Jackie looked back at the kind soul who was putting all of their weight into freeing her suitcases from the ridiculous confines of a 6x4 trunk. "But you made quite a few of your own there, didn't you?"_

"_Jackie," came the breathless reply, "now is not really the best time to remember all the memories that apartment holds." Jackie frowned._

"_You're cranky."_

"_Oh, give me a break…"_

_Jackie huffed and stormed across the parking lot. She ignored the nun in front of her and shoved past to get through the entrance and as far away from Little Miss Spoilsport as she possibly could._ _Jackie marched across the near-deserted foyer and slammed incessantly on the bell to draw some attention to herself. "Hello? Paying customer here!"_

_No sooner than she had opened her mouth, a pimply-faced young girl rushed from the back room and pulled the bell from Jackie's grasp. "How may I help you?" the short girl asked breathlessly. Jackie eyed her name tag. "Well, Amber, either change the name or lose the discount-braces because something here just isn't working," she stated, indicating the girl's Laura Wilder-esque outfit. Amber covered her chest self-consciously. "But now that you mention it, I," Jackie spun around on her heels with a dazzling smile, "am your latest tenant."_

_Amber nodded blankly. "Yeah… we prefer the name occupant." Jackie frowned. "We don't exactly get a lot of people staying here for too long."_

_Jackie rolled her eyes. "Honey, you will find yourself with a lot less stress if you just do what I say. That way your body won't be distracted from clearing up the tomato farm on your forehead." Amber gasped._

"_Jackie!"_

_Jackie's eyes shut instantly. "Uh oh." She slowly turned around, flashing her most innocent expression. "Hey you. Ow!" She pressed a hand to her forehead. "Did you just flick me?" she demanded._

"_Excuse me!" the girl interrupted. Both focused on her. "You still have to sign in." Both rolled her eyes._

"_Fine," Jackie snapped. "Give me a pen." Amber reluctantly handed her one. "Thank you," she said, snatching it away from her hand. She looked over her shoulder where Spoilsport was sitting bored on her suitcases. "Um, if you don't have anything better to do than stretch out my clothes, maybe you could carry them on into my room?" she suggested sweetly. Jackie groaned when she heard the metal slap against Amber's lips again. That simply meant…_

"_Oh, no, no!" Amber exclaimed. "We make it a point that our occupants must go past this point on their own. It allows them to begin their stay in a completely independent manner._

_Jackie's grip faltered, as did her voice._

"_Oh."_

"_It's mandatory. Sorry." Amber bowed her head and skulked back off to the back room, her arms dangling by her sides like a bear._

_Jackie pursed her lips tightly and finished signing the form, trying her best to ignore the comforting feeling of Spoilsport's hand on her shoulder. "Are you-"_

_Jackie nodded quickly. She pushed the form down the desk and turned around, picking up her handbag and doing her best to avoid any eye contact. The last thing she needed was a pitying look. "I'll just, uh," Jackie sniffed, "I'll come back and carry a few things in at a time. It's not much of a walk." She wasn't looking above their stomach, but she sensed a nod and took that as the signal for her to get going. "So… I guess, I'll see you around?"_

_This time she looked for the nod. "I'll come visit you whenever you want."_

_Jackie smiled. "Thank you." _

_She looked around her, disgusted by the irony of where she had ended up. She always thought kids who were born into alcoholism were always able to find some way to surmount it. But she hadn't. And now she was here._

_Jackie looked back at Spoilsport. She would have to hold onto that nickname. She held up a hand, waving her fingers slightly. Spoilsport copied the gesture. So, with nothing holding her back, she turned and walked briskly down the hall, not stopping until she came to a fork in the corridor. She sensed Spoilsport behind her and she leaned against a wall to steady herself._

_She knew what was coming. The soft voice. The gentle hand. The protective hold. The very things which made her want to turn and run screaming from this institution._

"_Jackie?"_

_There it was. _

_A sob escaped her lips. A painful one at that. She had been biting down on her lip for so long that she thought she would explode if she didn't cry out from the pain. A hand touched her shoulder._

_There it was._

_Her shoulders shook desperately and her eyes were stinging from being shut so tightly. Her grip on the wall was weakening and her sobs were growing louder. And the soft voice and gentle hand were not helping matters. "Come here." She felt herself being turned into that protective hold she had grown to depend on over the last few months. And for the first time, she didn't fight it. She clung fiercely to her lifeline, her heart dying at the thought of never making things right with her soulmate. "Oh, Jackie…"_

_That did it._

"_Oh God…" Her sobs tore her lungs apart. "Please don't make me do this," she begged. She cried out. "I'll try harder to stop, please!"_

"_Shh, baby. You're gonna be fine."_

_Hyde pulled her head away from his chest and he cupped her face in his steady hands. He leant his forehead delicately against hers. He smoothed the tears along his thumb._

"_But look at me, Steven!" Jackie cried, seeking refuge in his eyes. She swallowed deeply. "All I ever wanted, all I ever worked for… is gone. Because of me," Jackie finished, her face contorting with self-hatred._

_Hyde shook his head and lowered her head so his lips were pressed against her forehead. He bent his head and he breathed her in. "You haven't lost everything." Jackie looked at him hopefully. "Yep," he assured her._

_Jackie held his hands against her cheek, knowing that she had to let him go if she ever wanted to feel this again. "You have to leave."_

_Hyde patted her butt. "Good girl." Jackie laughed, her breath catching. She let her eyes fall closed as he caressed her face one last time, traced his thumb delicately over her lips, and nuzzled his nose in lovingly her hair._

_When she opened her eyes, he was gone._

_To be continued…_

_----------_

**A/N:** Argh, this last scene was a pain to write. I have never been in that situation and do not know if people can be that convincing at putting up a façade, only for it to simply fall away at the last moment. But I hoped you liked it, because it was so difficult to write.

One last thing, readership has went down recently and a lot fewer people are reviewing the story than there used to be. Why this has happened, I don't know, but if you read this then please, please leave me a review. I allow anonymous reviews so you don't even have to make an account. Just hit the 'Go' button at the left of your screen, and make me a happy man. It only takes a few seconds. Just ask my girlfriend. D

Stay safe.


	10. Live From New York

**The Morning After… what?**

Chapter 10 – Live From New York.

**A/N: **You all are amazing! I can't get over the brilliant reviews for the last chapter, so thank you, thank you, thank you! There are many questions I know you all need answered. Like, why is Jackie so mean to Hyde if he convinced her to go to rehab? Why is 1989 Hyde such a drunken mess when he appeared to be doing well when he was with Jackie in that last flashback? I'll do my best to answer.

Just to remind you all, there is a Best of Zen fanfic contest going on over at fanforum dot com and we could really use your help in making this contest worthwhile. What better way to show writers' your appreciation by adding their stories to your list of favourite all-time (well, since 9/04) JH stories? Besides reviews of course, but if you have already done that, then just PM luvcali76 with your list.

Thanks.

**Disclaimer: **Own nothing.

**Warning:** Language.

_**Previously…**_

_Jackie held his hands against her cheek, knowing that she had to let him go if she ever wanted to feel this again. "You have to leave."_

_Hyde patted her butt. "Good girl." Jackie laughed, her breath catching. She let her eyes fall closed as he caressed her face one last time, traced his thumb delicately over her lips, and nuzzled his nose in lovingly her hair._

_When she opened her eyes, he was gone._

_----------_

**MADISON**

**FORMAN HOUSE**

"Ow!" Hyde moaned. He smoothed his hair down from the mess his pregnant _ex_-friend had just caused. "I thought pregnant women were supposed to take it easily?" he exclaimed angrily.

Donna stuck her hands on her hips defiantly and stared him down with her ¾ inch height advantage. She took a menacing step towards him. "Listen here, Hyde." Hyde sank down on the couch in an infantile manner with his arms tightly crossed and a scowl etched on his face. If Donna wasn't so pissed, she might think he looked adorable. "There is not a chance in hell I am letting you go anywhere near Jackie all by yourself. You're liable to just make things worse than they already are!"

Hyde scoffed. "Yeah, right. Because things are so rosy for us at the moment." Hyde caught Donna's hand this time around and held it millimetres away from his head while she fixed him with a fuming glare. Donna yanked her arm back. Hyde eyes her for a moment longer and when he felt it was safe to let down his guard, he moved off his seat and ran his fingers through his hair tiredly. "Listen Donna, I have to see her and figure all of this out."

"I know," Donna replied matter-of-factly. Hyde stared at her, bewildered. Noticing his baffled expression, she rolled her eyes amusedly. "Like I said. You're not going anywhere near Jackie _by yourself_." She folded her arms smugly. "Which is why, I called reinforcements."

Hyde's lips turned up into a nervous smile while his mind drifted to what she could be keeping from him. "Who?"

They both jumped when the living room door blew open with a clumsy thud.

"I just saw a cat and a mouse doin' it on the porch and the mouse exploded!" Kelso yelled, gesturing manically.

Donna turned her attention back to Hyde and grinned. "The King."

----------

Hyde shot off his seat.

"Kelso?" he exclaimed. "You called Kelso to help? The guy who once wrote a term paper on whether it's Macaroni and Cheese, or Cheese and Macaroni?"

"_Heyyy,_" Kelso drawled defensively. "That baby got me a D+!"

"Yeah, for 'Doofus Maximus'," Hyde sniggered. But Kelso was too busy chasing the back of his coat to pay any attention to Hyde's timeless burn. By being lifelong friends with Kelso, Hyde and Donna had developed a sixth sense as to when disaster was about to strike and this proved useful by avoiding injury when Kelso tripped over his shoelace, cracked his shoulder off the coffee table and rolled out of sight over the chair and onto the carpet with an earth-shattering thud. Hyde and Donna waited anxiously for signs of life.

A lanky hand shot up with a pained, but muffled voice. "I'm OK!"

Hyde turned to Donna with a strained smile. "Road trip with Kelso." Hyde nodded with pursed lips. "I was right. This is a nightmare."

----------

Donna chuckled to herself and applied more pressure to the ice pack on Kelso's neck. "Why does it feel like all I do in this little production is clean up after you guys?" Kelso grinned.

"You have to admit, that was pretty funny back there." Hyde laughed, enjoying the lightness Kelso brought to this situation. "What with the arms flailing, and me cracking my head off the floor." Kelso laughed again. "It was like mine and Jackie's first time all over again."

"Kelso…" Hyde seethed, standing from the chair slightly.

Kelso looked obliviously at Hyde and his eyes widened. "Hey! Your sunglasses are gone! And so is your moustache!"

"It was already gone in Madison, you moron," he reminded him angrily.

Kelso's face took on a distant, baboon-like expression as he thought back. "I just you dyed it or something."

Hyde stared blankly at him. "Why would I dye my moustache?"

"I think the question is, why _wouldn't_ you dye your moustache, Hyde?"

Hyde seethed at Kelso for a moment longer before pressing his thumbs into the corners of his eyes. Donna, seeing this, began to have second thoughts as to whether a 'Kelso and Hyde double-team' was really such a good idea after all. It had only been 5 minutes and Kelso had already talked about after-sex exploding mice, dying moustaches, and why Eskimo's can solve the problem of global warming.

"Speaking of which," Hyde began, "What the hell is global warming?"

A slow smile spread across Donna's face as she turned to face Kelso. "Boy, are you going to have a fun trip."

----------

**KELSO'S VAN**

"I knew it!" Hyde boomed at the top of his voice. "I knew the power plants were the state's way of increasing air pollution and destroying the O-Zone-" Hyde looked at Kelso for affirmation. "O-Zone, right?" Kelso nodded. "Right, destroying the O-Zone layer so that the ice caps would melt and they could submerge our homes in water." Hyde wrung his hands furiously on the dashboard. "It's all just their plan to keep the rest of the world from finding out the truth."

Kelso never took his eyes of the road or even flinched for fear of making Hyde's distressed state even worse. For, Hyde had just been informed of what he must have by now deemed as the most horrific and destructive governmental plan in the history of Western Society. And if they didn't already have a mission at hand, Kelso would have been more than happy to listen to the infamous rants he had missed so much.

"… and _of course_ they would blame it on he power plants. Shifts the blame onto the Russians." Hyde's theorising was spinning out of control and Kelso had to put an end to it before it put Hyde in some catatonic state. "But we all know that it was really-"

"HYDE!" Two clumsy hands found their way onto Hyde's face and they snapped it around to face their owner. "Start focusing on Jackie," Kelso ordered.

Hyde pulled himself from Kelso's hold, huffing.

"Whatever."

Kelso beamed. "Aw, Hyde! You just _whatever'd _me! Aw, man, it has been too long!" Hyde turned his head slightly, glaring.

"_Jackie_, Kelso," Hyde reminded. Hyde slouched back in the seat and stuck his right foot up onto the dashboard, his hands folded over his kneecap. A question, which had been in the back of his mind since Kelso first arrived, was now begging to be answered. "Hey, Kelso?" Kelso grunted, too focused on reading the licence plate ahead of him which had a drawing of a boob on it. "Kelso!" Hyde barked. Kelso jumped.

"Jeez, Hyde. Relax!"

Hyde frogged him. "Then pay attention!" Kelso pouted. "Anyway… why did Donna call you for help?" Kelso laughed, forgetting they had been pissed at each other only a few moments earlier.

"Are you kiddin'? Man, gettin' Jackie back is what I do best!"

Hyde sighed. "Yeah, but I'm not going there to get her back. I'm going to find out what's wrong with her. That's all."

"Please…" Kelso drawled disbelievingly.

"No, Kelso!" Hyde shifted angrily in his seat. "Jackie and I clearly didn't work out even when we got married so what's the point in reliving that shit?"

Hyde's startling outburst left Kelso with only one other avenue of conversation to pursue.

"So, you really don't remember anything?" Hyde barely acknowledged him, which Kelso mistakenly took as a sign to keep rambling. "Cos that's gotta really suck, especially if you can't remember your wedding night! I guess it wasn't all that memorable, huh, buddy?"

Kelso was grinning like a madman but Hyde remained stoic. "Or my bachelor party! You gotta remember the strippers, Hyde! Right?" Hyde's eyes drifted closed. Kelso searched his mind frantically. "Uh, oh! That night we ran over a couple of male strippers and me and you had to go on for them at their show. And we had to wear the firemen costumes! You can't have forgotten that, Hyde."

Hyde sighed and shifted his weight onto his left side, and turned to look Kelso straight in the eye. "No, Kelso." Hyde leaned in another inch. "I don't remember any of it." Hyde moved back in his seat, his gaze never dropping. A sense of unnerving realisation began to settle in Kelso's mind.

----------

**MANHATTAN**

**OUTSIDE JACKIE'S APARTMENT BUILDING**

"Well," Kelso announced, waking the sleeping beast, "this is your stop."

The recently awakened passenger pushed himself up off his seat in a frazzled daze. "Already?" he croaked, and Hyde felt a dull pain at the base of his neck caused from the door handle he had been resting on. Kelso smiled and ruffled Hyde's messy hair, causing Hyde to fight back and smack Kelso in the face with his own hand. "Ow! My eye!"

Hyde yawned and nearly succumbed again to sleep when what sounded like a foghorn went off in his ear. "What the fu- AH!" Hyde clumsily covered his ears when Kelso beeped the device again. Kelso grinned.

"I said we're here, Hyde. God," Kelso huffed, "I'm surrounded by idiocy!"

Hyde smirked. "It's definitely all over you."

"Thank you!" Kelso gawked.

Hyde laughed whole-heartedly and it was only when he climbed out of the car that he noticed it was pitch black and the street was near-deserted. Hyde looked down at his watch. His eyes bulged. "Kelso!"

Hyde flinched when he heard a bang against the car door.

"Ow! My head!" He smirked and stormed over to where Kelso was hanging from the door with one hand and holding his temples with the other. "I think I bruised my brain."

Hyde nodded manically. "I'll say." He shoved his watch as far into Kelso's face as humanly possible. "Tell me what time it says," Hyde commanded. Kelso's eyes grew with what looked like hope.

"You can't tell time either?"

_1, 2, 3_

"Ow! My nose!"

Hyde stretched out his left hand while Kelso used his to hold his bloody nose. "Damn, Hyde. What did you do that for?" Hyde kneeled down and leaned in frighteningly close to Kelso.

"_Because_, you moron. It's almost midnight!" Hyde stood up and began walking around in small circles, occasionally pinching his nose, only to be reminded that he was shade-less, hungry and way behind schedule. The frustration was building in Hyde's gut and it started seeping out when he let out a growl and punched a lamppost. He didn't even care about how much his hand was hurting. Especially when he had just wasted a day travelling cross-country with his idiot best friend. "How did a 7 hour road trip take over 12 hours, Kelso?" Kelso shrugged innocently.

"No idea. I followed the map exactly. We took Route 94 to Milwaukee and then the 284 to Chicago; stopped for 4 hours to go to the 'Drive-Thru and Become a Scientologist' window and then we were back on the straight road to New York. But there was some traffic on the last road."

Hyde's teeth were clenched so hard that he thought he would be in dentures before he found out the identity of an icebreaker.

"Kelso…" Hyde started, keeping his eyes fixed straight ahead of him, "stay here."

Hyde reached into the car, pulling out his jacket, and he broke into a jog up the steps of the apartment building until he reached the door, which he quickly found wasn't co-operating with him the way it should. He pulled at it a few more times but it was locked tight.

"You have to be buzzed in!" Kelso called from across the street.

"What?" Hyde called back.

"I said!" Kelso was fully-yelling now. "You have to be buzzed in by somebody that lives here! I'll go around back to see if there's an open door!"

"Well, how do I get somebody to let me in?" Hyde yelled, but Kelso was already out of sight and Hyde was growing aggravated at this ridiculous situation of two grown men yelling questions across a Manhattan road. Hyde ignored draught of warm air which brushed against his body but after seeing what had caused it, he probably shouldn't have ignored it.

"Well, yelling appears to be doing the trick," she teased.

Hyde's eyes immediately lit up and his face broke out into a huge grin.

"Jackie."

----------

**STAIRWELL**

"Because I don't like elevators," Hyde barked in response to her question for what must have been the 42nd time since they opted to take the stairs as opposed to the much faster mode of transportation up the 14 floors to Jackie's apartment. Or rather, since _he_ had insisted they take the stairs. He was still reeling from his first experience with elevators during his visit to Grooves Headquarters.

Jackie sighed breathlessly when she saw that they still had another 6 floors to go.

"Whatever. Just as long as you make this visit worthwhile."

Hyde smirked and pulled her flush against him, startling them both. He pressed himself into her back and whispered lowly in her ear. "I can think of a few ways." Hyde could see her smirking, despite the better part of her face being obscured by long, wavy locks. Jackie laced her fingers with his and ducked beneath his arm so that she could remain a few tantalising steps in front of him. Jackie grinned and before Hyde knew what was happening, she turned and bolted up the stairs, giggling out of control. _So much for being breathless_. Hyde smirked and immediately set after her, using his size to his advantage as he closed in on her within another 2 flights of stairs and latched onto her waist as they tripped and landed on the top of the staircase, Jackie shrieking and Hyde laughing into her shoulder. And the laughter quickly proved contagious

"What the hell are we doing, Steven?" Jackie questioned loftily between breaths. Hyde raised his head to answer when she cut him off. "Better yet, don't tell me." She craned her neck to face him. "It's a _dangerous_ question," she told him with a wicked underlay to her voice.

Hyde let go of the comfortable feeling of being close to Jackie again, and he lifted himself off her body, offering a hand to help her up off the stairs, which she gladly took.

"Thanks," she muttered, suddenly feeling embarrassed at their juvenile behaviour. Hyde nodded silently, sharing in her embarrassment. Jackie waited to see if he would say anything, but she was met with the awkward quiet she had come to expect from this man in recent times. So she turned and jogged up the stairs, this time to put some distance between them, and not to provoke any more dangerous flirting.

Hyde knew he would lose her so he didn't try to rush. Instead, he simply fell back and moved at his own pace.

---------

**JACKIE'S APARTMENT**

Jackie had left the door open for Hyde and he took the invitation to enter without knocking or waiting for her permission. He saw her sitting cross-legged on the couch and focused intently on a television special about supermodels. _Some things never change,_ Hyde thought with a smile. She shifted over slightly, giving him just enough room to sit beside her but giving him not enough proximity so that they could 'mistakenly' touch.

"You're not talking," Hyde pointed out.

"Neither are you," she countered.

"And this is news?" Hyde volleyed back. Jackie smiled into the remote control, causing Hyde to smile as well. She turned her head and faced him, her smile apparently dissolved into the concerned expression she was wearing. He waited for her to speak, but to no avail, so Hyde bowed his head, uncomfortable with the way she was just staring at him without saying a word. "I said 'talk' not 'stare until you start creeping me out'." Jackie smiled tightly.

"I'm worried about you, Steven."

Her voice was so overwhelmed with emotion. Hyde shook his head. "Later. Right now we're gonna talk about you." Jackie's eyebrows arched.

"Did I hear correctly?" Jackie sat on her knees. "Does Steven Hyde actually want to hear me talk about myself? Just how much of your memory have you really lost? Because you should know better than to think I won't take an open invitation to highlight my flawless beauty." Hyde laughed sardonically. He knew she wouldn't make this easy on him. Not even amnesic-stricken ex-husbands were worthy of enough of Jackie's total mercy. And now he was going to try and figure out why that is.

"Jackie-"

He was cut off by the doorbell. Jackie held a finger up to Hyde. "Hold that thought." She lurched off her seat and went to open the door without thinking. Hyde's voice stilled her movements.

"Jackie, wait!"

He was a fast mover because she already felt his presence behind her. He grabbed hold of her shoulders and he flipped her around to face him where she saw his slightly angered eyes. "Don't tell me you, a single young woman living by herself in New York, answers the door late at night without checking to see who it is first?"

"No…?" Jackie tried.

"Jackie…"

She held her hands up defensively. "OK, Ok, you're right. I should probably be more careful." She turned back around and cleared her throat. "Who is it?" she bellowed.

"_Someone who is freezing his little men off out here."_

"Fez," they both agreed. Hyde nodded his approval and Jackie opened the door to see Fez shivering in an Eskimo hat, woolly gloves, red sequined pants, and a pink and purple raincoat.

"Presenting the artist formerly known as Fez," Hyde gestured. Jackie pushed him playfully but her concern remained with Fez. She reached out to pull him into the apartment.

"Honey, come on in." She shut the door behind him and led him over to the couch while Hyde stood in front of the door, staring at the infamous pair. He should be angry about what he found out. That Fez and Jackie had once been an item. But seeing them now, gossiping on the couch, Hyde accepted that he was already over something that had never truly bothered him to begin with. He had almost gone after Donna for exactly the same reasons Jackie went after Fez. She was what he was supposed to go for, but mostly she was safe and trusting. But just as it had once been for him and Donna, Fez and Jackie would never be more than good friends. And the longer Hyde stayed in this apartment with Jackie, the less he found himself believing what he told Kelso; that he and Jackie would never go back to the way they used to be. Especially if she kept exposing her neck like that every time she let out a hearty laugh and if Fez didn't shut up about who had won a contest to go on a date with her. Hyde didn't have time for this.

"Hey, Fez?" he asked, not caring that he had interrupted a conversation. Fez stared up at him expectantly. "Why don't you go to the store on the corner and get us some bread?"

Fez and Jackie looked between each other, neither catching on.

"Bread?" Fez asked, bewildered. Hyde looked to Jackie for assistance but it took several more glances in her direction before she got the hint.

"Oh, _bread!_" She laid a hand on Fez's. "We _really_ need some bread, Fez. Would you be a sweetie and go get me some?" she pleaded. Hyde smiled. She was pouting. She was 10 years older, but she was pouting.

Fez scratched the back of his hand nervously. "But, ai, it is so late and dark out. Can Hyde not be the one to go? He is much more daring and well formed than I."

"True enough," Hyde piped modestly. Jackie glared at her ex-husband before turning back to toy with Fez.

"But Fezzie, Steven doesn't know his way around. He could get lost or get _hit in the shins_ if he's not careful." Jackie threw a quick smirk in his direction. He smirked back.

Fez huffed. "I suppose." He seethed at Jackie. "But you owe me big time, missy. At the next sleepover, I am to see some girl-on-girl boobie touching or there will be hell to pay!" Fez stood up, throwing a scarf over his neck dramatically. He stormed across the apartment. "Now, Good night!"

"Good night, Fez,"

"Night, Fez."

Fez stopped just as he was about to turn the doorknob, and he frowned disappointedly. "It just doesn't have the same kick to it at night time, does it?" Fez asked sadly. He shrugged his shoulders. "But all good things must end sometime, I suppose."

"I guess so."

Hyde frowned and turned to see that Jackie was staring intently at him, her eyes brimming with sadness. And when the spell was at long-last broken, they each noticed that Fez had left the apartment without their knowing. Hyde walked back over near to Jackie and perched himself on the coffee table.

"Will Fez be alright out there by himself?"

Jackie nodded confidently. "Yeah, this is a pretty safe neighbourhood."

Hyde let out a shaky breath and wiped his sweaty palms on his t-shirt, angry at himself for showing such open signs of lost composure. "Listen Jackie, about before Fez got here." Jackie clicked her fingers, remembering.

"Right, you were about to say something important."

"Yeah," Hyde breathed. "Look, I-"

They were cut off again by a loud bang against Jackie's balcony window. "What the hell?" she screamed fearfully, letting Hyde 'volunteer' himself to go and inspect her balcony and see what had caused the thud. Within in moments, he had brought in the evidence. Hyde shook his head, dumbfounded as he dumped him onto the floor at Jackie's feet.

"I should have known," Hyde gritted.

Kelso tried to stand and nearly lost his balance when Hyde caught him.

"Michael! What were you doing flying into my window?"

"Trying to _fly_, Jackie! Duh!" Kelso rolled his eyes. "Man, rehab must have made you dumber or something."

Hyde smacked Kelso upside the head; his protective nature rearing its unwelcome head. "Yeah, and it must have made you its official sponsor."

Jackie began pacing around her living room with her arms folded, muttering quickly to herself. "I just don't believe this. It's like I'm being visited by the Ghosts of Boyfriends Past…"

"Uh," Hyde interrupted, drawing her attention onto him, "_husband, _OK?" he stated with a proud smile. Hyde turned back to Kelso. "So, what are you doing trying to fly? I thought you were gonna go find a door?"

Kelso puffed. "I tried! But everywhere was locked!"

Hyde nodded. "So the next logical step for you was to fly."

Kelso grabbed hold of Hyde's head in his left arm. "You have always gotten me before everybody else, Hyde," he proclaimed.

Hyde played along for a brief moment before the contact became too uncomfortable for him to handle. "That's enough, Kelso. Ke-K-Kelso, I said… KELSO!" Hyde broke out of the hold and he fumed at Kelso. "I said, that's enough."

The three now found themselves with nothing to say and nothing to do except wait patiently for Fez to return with the-

"Oh my God, Fez!" Jackie exclaimed. She threw open the door and the frozen body of a foreigner fell into the apartment and landed on the floor with a great thud. She kneeled down beside him. "Oh Fez, I'm sorry!" She looked tiredly at Hyde. "We were so distracted with Michael that we forgot to leave the door open or listen for Fez."

Hyde scratched at the nape of his neck. "Come on, Kelso. Help me undress him." Kelso's eyes bulged.

"WHAT? Nuh, uh. Not happening, Hyde! I promised you a ride and a pan, a comb, and maybe a cat." Kelso shook his hands. "But I'm not looking to switch teams with Fez." Hyde looked to Jackie for support and she nodded. "Damn, Jackie! Why are you always hitting me?"

"We need to get Fez out of these wet clothes!" Hyde barked.

Kelso looked to be thinking – hence the beads of sweat on his forehead. And then he laughed the laugh.

"Oh yeah. Alright, let's get goin'."

Jackie laughed and Hyde and Kelso carried Fez into Jackie's bedroom, where Hyde surprisingly emerged moments later, having left Kelso to deal with the cleanup because, "I thought we could talk." Jackie smiled sweetly and took him by the hand, leading him over to sit on the couch, no longer fearful of 'mistakenly' touching. He wasn't quite ready to look her in the eye but he still felt as nervous as a 13 year old about to kiss a girl for the first time. His lips dry, his blood racing. Thank God, Jackie had the incentive to go ahead and start first.

"So, you have some questions, right?" Hyde paused for a moment, and then gave a slight downward motion with his head. Jackie sighed. He wasn't going to make this easy for her. "Well, where do you want to begin? What do you remember?" Hyde shook his head.

"No…"

"No? You don't want to talk about that?"

She was pressuring him. She knew that. But he needed her too. She was what kept him from giving up and just letting it be.

"Why don't I just let you ask the questions?" she suggested after the longest silence.

He was so clearly troubled and she wanted nothing more than to help him, the way she hadn't helped him when he needed her back then. Jackie could never stop herself from wondering what would have become of them as a couple if she had taken the time to help him back before all their troubles started. Would they still be here on this couch together? But would they be snuggled up watching Saturday night TV? Her hypothesising came to an abrupt end when Hyde began.

"Donna, uh…" Hyde cleared his throat. "She filled me in on some stuff before I left. And I read your letters to her." Jackie's eyes drooped, not wanting to hear what his opinion of her now was. "I think you were really brave, Jackie." Jackie laughed. "Seriously. You had a problem and you got the help you needed to beat it. I'm…" Hyde lowered his gaze and toyed with his fingers, "I'm proud of you, Jackie."

Jackie bit down hard on her lip, an excruciatingly painful cry forbidden from being released. "Thank you," she whispered. She wiped her eyes. "Do you know what happened after you made me go to rehab?" Hyde shook his head. She smiled sadly. "I turned on you." His hand dropped from hers, though only from shock and not from any sense of betrayal. "You…" Jackie sniffed, "saw me at my worst. And most people would probably be grateful to have that person seeing them at such a bad point and still wanting to be a part of their lives." Jackie hugged her knees. "Bu I'm not most people, and I did not want any reminders of who I used to be. So, I wouldn't let you visit me." She let her head fall into her knees. "I wouldn't let you near me because I was so angry with myself and you reminded me why. And when I pushed you away, I only thought of myself. I never thought of how it might hurt you, Steven."

Hyde nodded. "But I thought you said we broke up because we stopped communicating?"

Jackie blinked. "What?" And then she caught on. "Oh no, Steven! Me going to rehab happened after we had split up. But we were both doing OK on our own-"

"OK?" Hyde teased. "You were Pamela Burkhart: The Next Generation and I was ogling pre-teens." Jackie smirked.

"I said, 'OK', not great."

She cleared her throat again. "Anyhow, I pushed you away and you got angry. Rightfully so, I might add," she chirped in, attempting to appease any possible Hyde-ish responses. And it must have worked because all she was met with was understanding. "And by the time I got out, it was too late. You were drinking and pulling away from everybody…"

"… and that's why Forman was so mad at me." The truth was setting in for Hyde. "He thought I had abandoned you," he admitted somewhat shamefully.

Jackie shrugged. "I can't speak for Eric. But I do know that it was _me_ who abandoned you in the end."

"Why?" Hyde asked, just asking. Needing to know. She shrugged again.

"I was too afraid of being with you again. Of being reminded of my past and where it got me." She leant on her palm. "I never claimed to be the smartest girl, Steven. Only the most beautiful."

Hyde cracked a tiny smile. And as if compelled by a bigger force, Hyde swallowed and began probing into where exactly forgetting her past had gotten Jackie.

"Donna told me," he informed her. Her eyes bugged out. "that I had to talk to you." He smiled when he saw her let out a sigh of relief. "You really need to let me finish a sentence from time to time."

"Sorry," She sighed. "I just, I-"

His hand finally connected with hers again. He pulled her onto his lap and wrapped an arm around her back and using his other to rub soothingly along her leg. "Tell me," he whispered.

She shook her head quickly, tears becoming more and more of a threat.

"I can't,"

He continued rubbing her leg.

"Why can't you?"

She ran a hand along the base of his neck, unconsciously playing with his hair the way he loved.

"Because that will make it real." She closed her eyes, searching for peace. "And terrifying," she admitted.

Hyde lay back on the couch and closed his eyes, still rubbing her leg, and

momentarily releasing her from his forceful gaze.

"Just tell me what it is, baby."

She blew out a breath.

"It's a re-run, that's what it is."

His eyes snapped open in confusion and focused on her, still sitting on his lap, still playing with his hair the way he loved, and still not looking at him. She was looking at the TV instead. A 12 inch, black and white portable TV resting atop a worn old wooden cabinet and surrounded by a decade's old rug, a battered couch, a lawn chair, a freezer, a shower curtain and a torn, white-leather chair which he and Jackie sat on, still in the Forman basement and still together, alone, snuggled up and watching TV together.

"I'll never understand why they re-air old episodes of this show when they know everybody only watches for the sketches. Idiots. Aren't they, Steven?" Jackie heard no reply and looked down at her boyfriend who was enjoying some serious eye contact with the wall. "_Ste-ven," _she said in a sing-song voice. "Steven!" she barked, this time in all her Burkhart glory.

Hyde blinked, focusing on her. "Uh, yeah?"

"You drifted off there." She narrowed her eyes at him. "Were you thinking about sex?" Hyde cleared his throat, shifting her weight a little of his lap.

"Uh, no. Just had a strange dream." Her eyes sparkled hopefully.

"Ooh. Was I in it?"

"_Live from New York, it's Saturday Night!"_

_To be continued…_

_----------_

**A/N: **ducks from being hit by the crowds. I am sure many of you think this is silly and that there is no way this could have all been a dream. Well, it was. And I had this planned from the very start as one of two possible scenarios and it ended up being the winner. I actually did have a dream once where I kept thinking it was all made-up and then I woke up and it was. Now, even if you hated this twist, please let me know so I can try and make it up to you in forthcoming chapters. Believe me, there is a huge point to this dream and it will affect the rest of the story but you will just have to wait and find out how so. Trust me, this has all been done for a very important reason. So, if you liked this, review. If you didn't like it, still review! I have put so much hard work into this story and all of your feedback means the world to me. And don't forget to PM luvcali76 with your 10 favourite Jackie/Hyde stories. Thank you.

Stay safe.


	11. I Don't Know

**The Morning After… what?**

Chapter 11 – I Don't Know.

**A/N: **Hey, I know it's been a while but it has been an uneasy time for zennies and it wasn't the best time to write. So many of you stuck with this story after last chapter's revelation and I can't thank you enough. I hope everyone enjoys this because there is quite a bit to go in the story.

**Disclaimer: **Own nothing.

**Warning:** Language.

_**Previously…**_

"_You drifted off there." She narrowed her eyes at him. "Were you thinking about sex?" Hyde cleared his throat, shifting her weight a little of his lap._

"_Uh, no. Just had a strange dream." Her eyes sparkled hopefully._

"_Ooh. Was I in it?"_

"_Live from New York, it's Saturday Night!"_

_----------_

**DECEMBER 10TH 1978**

**POINT PLACE**

**FORMAN BASEMENT**

**11:32 PM**

Without giving him time to answer, Jackie laid a hand on her chest and her face melted with self-adoration. "Oh, I must have been _so_ beautiful as your dream girl." Her eyes widened like the technicolor saucers they were with her next question. "What was I wearing?"

Her words barely registered with Hyde since he was feeling incredibly disorientated and had a soft tingling sensation deep in his belly. And with Jackie bouncing up and down on his lap the way she was, he was torn between having his way with her on the couch or saving Mrs Forman from the messy cleanup of an exploding bladder. "Be back in a minute, babe," he rushed out before squeezing her hips and tossing her onto the arm of the couch, making a mad dash for the stairs and ignoring anything that got in his way; namely Kitty with a basket of laundry under one arm and a baby in the other. All 3 were headed for a collision with the dryer when Jackie stopped dusting herself off long enough to hop off the couch and steady Kitty in her tracks.

"Oh!" Kitty exclaimed breathlessly, "Thank you, Jackie!" She shifted her attention to the squirming bundle in her arms. "We wouldn't want little Sandrine here having a booboo, now would we?" Kitty pressed her face close to the tiny girl's and she began giggling her infantile laugh. "Oh no, we won't. Oh no, we won't." Jackie laughed at this display of maternal affection. It wasn't exactly her forte. "Her parents will have my head if she has a bump on her head when they pick her up in the morning." Kitty looked up at Jackie with the ever-present twinkle in her eyes. "I suppose you'll be wanting one of these yourself soon enough."

Jackie scoffed with her arms folded. "Please, Mrs. Forman. I can barely decide what to dress myself in every morning, let alone a baby." Kitty shook her head in total disagreement.

"Now, now, Jackie. You have the mothering instinct in you. You just haven't had enough experience with it since your own mother was such a…" Jackie's mouthed twitched into a smirk. Kitty searched her mind frantically for the appropriate term to describe Pam Burkhart. "… a friendly flier," she finished with a laugh.

Jackie rolled her eyes. "She was definitely _friendly_, all right."

Kitty placed a delicate hand over Sandrine's ears and gave Jackie a stern look. "Don't say things like that around a baby or they'll be liable to become-"

"-friendly fliers?" Jackie cut in with a knowing smile. Kitty laughed.

"You're already learning." Kitty walked over and dropped Sandrine into Jackie's arms before either girl had a moment to protest and hurried over to the dryer to begin loading in the family's church clothes.

"What are you doing?" Jackie shrieked as she held Sandrine as far away from her as possible. "I don't know how to hold a baby!"

"Oh Jackie, there's nothing to it," Kitty assured her. "It's just like holding a grocery bag."

Jackie still looked quite uneasy as she eyed the baby. "I usually just hand the bags to Steven and steal a $20 from his wallet." Her eyes wandered over to Hyde, who was slowly making his way down the steps to the basement. Her eyes lit up with hope. "Steven!" she screamed. Hyde grabbed onto the pillar for support.

"Dammit, Jackie. Not so loud." He limped down the remaining stairs and fell into his seat. "I'm still pretty out of it." Kitty's concern instantly got the better of her and she abandoned her laundry and leaned down to press the back of her hand to his forehead.

"What's the matter, Steven? Are you not feeling well? I'll go right ahead and fix you some soup." Kitty finished loading the laundry and walked back up the stairs with the basket tucked under her arm.

Hyde cringed. "Actually Mrs Forman, I'm not si-," He paused to think, "Can you make it tomato soup?" Jackie chuckled. "What?" he asked, picking up what must have been one of Eric's comics.

She shook her head. "I just don't think I've ever seen you sick before."

Hyde scoffed. "Please, I'm not…" Hyde trailed off and squinted his eyes, mouthing what Jackie just said to him. She waited patiently for him to finish his sentence but Jackie soon got distracted with trying to remember when she had actually been patient. She snapped out of it and clicked her fingers in front of his face. He blinked. "Hmm?"

Jackie stared at him. "What do you mean, 'Hmm'? You spaced out for a second." Hyde nodded distractedly.

"Yeah, uh… just had a déjà vu." Jackie frowned.

"But you don't believe in déjà vu's. You think it is just our brains recovering whatever information the government does not want us to know."

Hyde scoffed. "You think you know me so well."

"No, I don't think I know you so well, Steven. I _know_ I know you so well," she grinned. Hyde flicked through the latest mishaps in the life of Peter Parker.

"Whatever,"

She narrowed her eyes at him. "You think I don't? How about this? I know for a fact you are wearing navy boxers with a white stripe along the right side. I also know that you bought that copy of Spiderman because you secretly want to visit New York.

"I already know all about New York," Hyde grinned, not bothering to look to look up from the comic and incensing Jackie further.

"Fine," she said, clipped. "I'll just take Sandy here upstairs and when I come back, we'll settle this."

"Do whatever you… wait, who?" he spluttered, finally tearing his eyes away. He tossed the comic onto the coffee table and crossed his legs. "Jackie," he started in an even tone, "why do you have a baby?"

Jackie shrugged innocently. "I'm not really sure. Mrs Forman asked me to hold her while she did the laundry and then she just forgot her." She guffawed. "It's no wonder Eric and Laurie turned out the way they did."

Hyde stood up and eyed the apathetic-looking little girl suspiciously. "She would be a fine Zen student, wouldn't you, baby grasshopper?" Sandy giggled and a magnificent smile arose across Jackie's face.

"Oh my God, Steven! She likes you!" She cuddled the baby tighter to her chest. "Oh, we are _so_ keeping her!" Hyde rolled his eyes for the umpteenth time Jackie had arrived at the basement earlier that evening.

"Jackie…"

She pleaded. "Oh, Steven, come on! No-one ever likes you!" Make that umpteenth plus one, Hyde thought.

"Jackie…"

"And it's not like I can get you out of the house to meet new people."

"Jackie."

"Fine!" she relented. She bowed her head and let her hair fall across her face. After a moment, she lifted her head and presented him with her sad, mis-matched eyes and the always-waiting-to-be-used pout. "_Pwease…"_

Hyde sighed and sat down on the arm of the couch, removing his sunglasses and giving her the little-boy look he had recently discovered made her as weak in the knees as her pout made him. This little game of "Who will crack under the cuteness first?" had become one of the more lighter moments in their increasingly-strained relationship over the last few months.

Little Sandy, meanwhile, looked back and forth between the two, completely immersed in the stare-down.

Jackie's mouth began to twitch and before Hyde could revel, she had given in. "I'll take her up to Mrs Forman. You always win," she sulked. "But you don't play fair!" Hyde smacked his hands together.

"That's why I always win." Jackie stuck her tongue out.

"Come on, Sandy." She began walking up the stairs. "Wouldn't it be great if Brooke had another baby and named him Danny and we set the babies up on a play date? Danny and Sandy. Like right out of-"

"Do not mention that movie to her!" he scolded. "And Danny' is such a sissy name."

"Oh yeah, because _Steven_ strikes fear in the heart of men everywhere,"

Hyde looked up the ceiling. "I'm gonna kill Bob Barker if I ever see him and _you_ won't be able to stop me."

----------

Hyde collapsed onto his bed and he hugged a bag of M&M's to his torso while munching on a few of them. He had never given them a try before but Fez was never without a packet and he was often in an optimistic mood so Hyde figured it couldn't hurt to try them. "Good stuff," he muttered.

He couldn't believe how tired he was. Total fatigue had overcome him and he couldn't figure out why. There was also an uneasy, nagging feeling in the pit of his stomach that only served to make him deeply unsettled. Any other time, he would take care of this problem with a good old-fashioned circle, but Fez was out on a date, somehow, after becoming the hot new thing at the salon, Eric was off discovering new and improved ways to piss his year away, and Kelso was playing the role of doting father as well as trying to get back into Brooke's good books after forgetting to pick up Betsy from her paediatrician's office.

"Pft, traitors."

He wasn't all together sure why he cared enough to keep track of his friends' whereabouts but he figured somebody had to and level-headedness wasn't exactly a common trait in this gang of oddballs. Anyway, Hyde was more than happy to have this time to himself. With Christmas fast approaching and all of Point Place sure to be buzzing with excitement at the thought of wasting their money on crap that they could easily live without, Angie might not be so willing to let him skip out on work every other hour. But Hyde knew better. He knew that the necklace he had bought for Jackie was not some frivolous expense. No, it was for the good of his sex life. No man in his right mind would dare come home on Christmas Eve if he didn't have a gift in hand or a few sincere words laid out on one of Hallmark's finest, especially if that man was coming home to Miss Jackie Burkhart. And especially if that man was secretly hoping for a replay of her Christmas present to him last year. Hyde chuckled. He knew she still had that outfit.

----------

**12 MONTHS EARLIER**

**OUTSIDE THE FORMAN BASEMENT**

"_Dammit, what is this top made of!" Jackie tore her mouth away from its assault on her boyfriend's neck to lay his mouth on hers, and she unclasped the hook of her red striped number. "Much better," he breathed onto her neck. She grinned and bent her back slightly to press her right foot up against the wall and pull Hyde even closer. His mouth latched onto hers and he moaned with pleasure as she raked her fingers through his hair. "God, Jackie, we uh," Jackie kicked herself off the wall and drove him into the opposite wall until she had his back pressed flat against it. She whipped her head back._

"_Write me a letter, Steven." And she was back on him. She moved her hands down to slip under his belt but she pulled them out just as quickly and dug his keys from his back pocket._

"_You're a tease," he said into the kiss. Jackie grinned wickedly._

"_It's not my fault you look so hot in that bolo." She pulled back from him again. "Oh yeah, it is." She crushed her lips against his and felt for the doorknob, finally finding it and sliding the key in before Hyde could realise what she had done and when he moved to press her against the basement door, it pushed open and they fell right through it – landing on the concrete floor. Jackie gasped when something lumpy stopped her head from smacking off the ground. She looked up into his shaded eyes. "Your hand saved me! Oh Steven…" Jackie laced her fingers around his neck and attempted to restart what they had been doing before gravity rudely interrupted them. Hyde reciprocated, albeit briefly._

"_We're on the floor and your hair is a mess." Hyde's tongue slipped between her eager lips and he pulled back to look at her. "You must really be horny."_

_She laughed. "It's Christmas. I swear, if you dressed up in a Santa suit, you wouldn't be able to walk again."_

_Hyde pulled back, slightly disturbed. "Santa?" Jackie smiled._

"_Oh yeah. Those black leather boots, the tight, red fabric. Being locked away all year with a group of men." She bit her lip. "It's hotter than a bolo." Hyde arched an eyebrow._

"_Red's costume is still upstairs. I can go-"_

"_Actually," Jackie interrupted, fingering his collar, I had another outfit in mind for tonight." Hyde stared at he, not understanding. "Look under your bed," she whispered. He was gone before she could close her mouth._

_Hyde literally lifted the bed off its feet and instantly found what he was looking for. He stared at it, speechless. "I'm gonna marry this girl," He snatched it up and zoomed out of the bedroom, keeping his attention focused on the green/white uniform that was causing his hands to shake so. "Why the hell have we never tried th…" The speechless returned. "…is. Woah."_

_Jackie cocked any eyebrow. "How long are you going to let me stand here without any clothes on?"_

_He gawked at her naked form. "Depends how long it takes me to rip this uniform to shreds," he croaked. Jackie sauntered over to him and took the uniform from his shaking hands._

"_I was hoping I could try it on one last time," Jackie fingered his bolo, "and then you could rip it to shreds."_

_Hyde tilted his head. "I could live with that." She pranced into his room and slammed the door shut before his legs could register to follow her. He couldn't figure out why he was so excited, nor did he want to. Regardless of how much this girl was changing him, he was about to have a beautiful cheerleader dance for him and only him, and you didn't have to be an emotionally scarred orphan to appreciate that._

_He wrung his hands restlessly and took off his sport jacket, throwing it over the shower curtain and settling down on the couch to occupy his mind while Jackie was changing into her uniform just 30 feet away. This was mental torture, he decided. This was what they did during the war to pry information from the more difficult soldiers. Fly in 95lb dark-haired beauty's to dance for them on Christmas Eve and have her be the first thing they got to unwrap on Christmas morning. Unwrapping Jackie gave Hyde some images that weren't suitable for the Disney movie that was being shown. He just didn't see Walt as the type of guy to welcome Hyde's current physical state into a world with poisoned apples, so Hyde stuffed a pillow over his pants and did his best to rid his excitement by attempting to recount the things Eric had mentioned to him after walking in on Red and Kitty nearly two years ago. None of that mattered when he heard his bedroom door creak open and the silhouette of Santa's Little Vixen was cast over the static TV screen. She simply walked to the record player and selected their rarely-used copy of a Stealers Wheel album. When the opening chords of 'Stuck in the Middle' wafted out of the sound system, he knew he was screwed._

_----------_

His tease of a cheerleader ended his memory when she returned to the basement and came into his bedroom sans-baby and unfortunately, sans-nakedness.

She sat down on the edge of the bed and rubbed his stomach. "Hey, what are you doing in here?" He shrugged, his eyes closed. "Well, do you want anything to eat? I think Mrs Forman abandoned your soup when there was a rumoured sighting of Casey Kelso at the Hub." Hyde chuckled.

"The guy's like a movie star or something."

"A movie star in desperate need of a nose job," she corrected. She quickly took in his appearance and for the first time in weeks, she allowed herself to take into account the fact that he had lost a little weight and was looking a tad paler than usual. She had called him on it before but he put it down to the stress of opening Grooves and this whole deal with discovering he was half-black and had a sister to boot. However, Jackie was convinced it had more to do with him being determined not to let W.B. down and his desire to shrug off the stereotype that he reaped in all the benefits of hard work but put in none of the effort. His neuroticism was going to be the death of him unless she intervened.

"Come on," she said in an upbeat tone.

He opened his eyes warily. "What now?"

She smacked his knees. "You are taking me out." Hyde flicked his wrist.

"It's after midnight." She rolled her eyes spastically.

"You're taking me for a walk around the block then." She rose and her hands moved to her hips. "You need some fresh air and some exercise. I can sense the makings of a beer belly and I will simply not stand for it. So move!"

He threw his arm over his head. "What I _need_ is some peace and quiet and to be left alone so just go bug Donna for a while."

She groaned in exasperation. "Steven, would you just-"

"I said, _leave me alone!"_ Hyde growled.

The room fell into silence.

And that was because Hyde was alone in it.

"Dammit."

----------

"Jackie! Jackie, wait up!" Hyde jumped in front of her and stopped her from climbing the stairs to the kitchen. "Jackie, I'm sorry. I'm just not in a good mood."

She gawked disbelievingly at him. "Steven! You're _never _in a good mood. But you never bite my head off."

Hyde pinched his nose. "I know. And I'm sorry." He sighed. "It's just been a really long night."

"Which you slept through half of," she bit back. Hyde groaned. Why could she never see things from his perspective instead of from her idealised one?

"Dammit, Jackie. I'm just tired from working all the time. You know, doing that thing you pushed me to do in the first place?" She couldn't believe he was trying to pull this now.

"I didn't _push _you to do anything you didn't want to do. I _pushed _you to make more of an effort in your life. I didn't try to push you to become a workaholic who takes his frustrations out on his girlfriend!"

"Oh, whatever," he spat.

Jackie's anger subsided and an irate calm washed over her. "And there it is. The coward that is Steven Hyde rears its ugly head yet again."

Hyde laughed. "You think I'm a coward?"

She shrugged. "Coward. Hypocrite. It all rings true when it comes to you."

Hyde folded his arms across his chest and stared her down. "Go on." She assumed a similar pose and did as she was told; none of which Hyde was listening to. His head was too busy doing the talking for him. It was telling him something he would have been content to not know. Something he wasn't willing to admit because it wouldn't do any good to either he or Jackie. That little voice that made him screw up because it would save Jackie future pain, died away a long time ago and now another voice had come along and begun telling him what was best in the long run. But he could ignore it for a little while longer. No good in messing with a good thing, Hyde reasoned. And if that stupid nagging, uneasy feeling in the pit of his stomach would leave him alone, he might not be feeling so irritable and ready to bolt.

"Can we go to bed?" he cut in. Jackie was momentarily at a loss for words. She had been giving the rant of her life and he was more occupied with copping a feel.

"As long as I can stop yelling," she ordered. Hyde nodded and led her back to the bedroom where they performed their nightly ritual of leaving outstanding issues in the real world and using the bedroom as their conduit to ignorant bliss.

The door shut and Jackie peeled off her blouse and skirt and she sat down on the bed, pulling her boots off and manoeuvring until she was comfortable under the covers and warmed by the part of the bed Hyde had been resting on a few minutes before.

Hyde watched her get comfortable, clad only in her purple bra and underwear. It felt like a lifetime since they had done this and he didn't want it to feel like another so he shrugged out of his pants and slid under the covers, wasting no time in reaching out and pulling her flush against his side. She draped her right arm over his chest and he raised his right hand to tug gently at her hair. He barely heard her speak into his t-shirt.

"Why are we fighting so much?"

He kept tugging at her hair as he contemplated the answer. "I don't know." She lifted her head.

"That's all you have to say?" He shrugged.

"I don't know what you want me to say." She sighed.

"It's just… never mind, let's just forget about it."

Jackie laid her head back down on his clothed chest and she let her mind drift while his stayed surprisingly on-issue. He didn't know why they were being so short with one another lately. Ever since they got back together last year, there hadn't been a single bump in their relationship. Not a tear shed, not an angry word spoken. It was as if some higher being had given them some downtime to just be happy and to be able to ignore reality but like any Faustian deal, payment was unavoidable and that higher being was collecting its debt by toying with Hyde's long-suppressed self-doubts and Jackie was now the benefactor of these little mind games. Hyde just wanted to sleep and wake up tomorrow and have it be 10 years in the future so he didn't have to deal with all this drama. He just needed to escape for a little while.

----------

**DECEMBER 11TH**

**3AM**

Awareness caught up with Jackie and she wondered just how long she had been staring at a dark spot across the room. She shifted her head lightly and realised Hyde wasn't in bed with her. Confused, she lifted herself and squinted in the darkness. "Steven?" she called out in a dry voice. She gulped in disgust. She needed a glass of water. She reached out and switched his bedside lamp on, not needing to feel around for it seeing as how she had long ago memorised the exact layout of his bedroom. She swung her legs off the bed and shivered at the coldness her feet felt when they hit the concrete ground. "Stupid floor." Her blouse was hanging over a chair and she didn't even bother buttoning it up once she was out of the bedroom and sure that Fez wasn't hanging around to catch a glimpse of some late-night boob.

No matter how many times she climbed these stairs at night, she always felt like some young Hollywood starlet in a slasher flick who was moments away from uncovering the big mystery of the movie. Checking her appearance, she confirmed that she was in fact the young Hollywood starlet moments away from uncovering the truth. But this truth was much more gruesome than the ones Hitchcock so often attempted to create because this truth wouldn't disappear as soon as the reason behind it was revealed. Jackie stepped out of the doorway and peeked her head around the refrigerator.

"Steven," she announced, somewhat relieved to see him eating a sandwich at the kitchen table safe and sound. He nodded upon seeing her and finished off the PB&J dish.

"Hey. How come you're up?" he asked, dusting his hands. She shrugged, swaying on the counter.

"You weren't in bed and I was worried," she admitted, pelted by the embarrassment her overactive imagination had once again caused her.

Hyde smiled. "Well, as you can see, I'm fine." He turned her around and edged her shoulders. "Come on, let's go back to bed before Mrs Forman catches us and gives us another lecture about how Baby Jesus-"

"Don't even finish that!" she admonished, spinning around to fix him with a deadly glare. "I haven't been able to step foot inside a church ever since."

He set her back on their course to bed. "And here I was thinking you were beginning to believe that organised religion was just the gov-"

She spun around again and this time, placing a finger firmly over his mouth. "Don't even finish that!" He grinned under her finger and she couldn't resist leaning up and giving him a soft peck on the lips. She stayed on her tip-toes and just took a moment to stare at him. "Love you."

He pulled her finger away and held it enclosed in his hand. He lowered his eyes. "Love you too." He slid his arms around her waist and rested his head atop hers but she turned her head and rested the side of her face against his neck. "We should do this more often," he informed her.

She smiled. "What? Stand locked in each other's arms in the moonlight whispering words of love."

He kissed her forehead. "Standing near a draught and having you wear an open blouse." She smacked his stomach on instinct but proceeded to slide her arms around his back so he was completely enveloping her. But her feet were still cold so she stood on his. "Ahh, fuck-." He bit down on his lip, glaring at her and ready to yell. Then she pouted.

----------

They eventually found their way back to bed and lay much more intimately than they had done when they first tried this. They were both so cold that spooning seemed like the only option and once Jackie had his left hand intertwined with hers and her two feet trapped between each of his, she felt ready to begin her bedtime story to Hyde.

"So, I already know what I am buying everybody for Christmas but I haven't told people what _I_ want so I'm going to start with what you have to buy me." Hyde tucked his head between her shoulder blade and her neck.

"Why's that?"

She sighed. "Because, Steven. You need as much time as possible to get me my present or else I'll end up having to punish you. And not in the fun way where I say I'm punishing you but we end up breaking the couch." She felt his smile in her neck, causing her to have one of her own. "Don't get any ideas, horny pants," she teased, pushing back against his groin. "Now, I want a-"

"What if I told you," Hyde began, shutting her up, "that I already had your present?"

She thought about it. "Well, you would either be the sweetest boyfriend in the world who was getting to see me in some red and black leather this Christmas Eve, or you would be the biggest liar whose shades would be made part of a car windscreen if he was ever found out." Hyde nodded.

"It's a good thing my shades aren't going anywhere, then," he muttered. Her whole body froze and she was stunned into silence. "Not the reaction I was hoping for but-"

"You got me a present?" Jackie shrieked. "Oh my God, you are the best!" She was too far gone in her delirium to pay any attention to the volume of her voice and her mind was already working in overdrive to determine what outfit she should be wearing when he presents his gift to her. Her fantasies allowed Hyde to finally find the peace he required to get some sleep and now that nagging, uneasy feeling in the pit of his stomach was dying away into his subconscious where he would no doubt have to deal with it there. But subconscious issues had never caused him any trouble before and there was no reason to give this nagging, uneasy feeling in the pit of his stomach another thought. No reason at all.

He just needed to sleep.

----------

**A/N: ** So, what'd you think? This has been such a long wait, I know, and it may still leave you wondering just how exactly the dream will figure into the story but trust me, it does. I just need to focus more on conscious actions rather than subconscious actions for now. But please, please, PLEASE REVIEW!!! Every single one of your opinions matter to me and they help make this story better. Thanks and I hoped you enjoyed this.

Stay safe.


	12. Decision Making

**The Morning After… what?**

Chapter 12 – Decision-Making.

**A/N: **Hey! God, it's been far too long. I wish there was more going on in this chapter but it's just the way the story has to play out right now. This was supposed to be a lot longer but in the end I cut a lot of unimportant scenes that wouldn't have advanced the plot all that much. I hope you guys enjoy it because I'll feel like shit if you don't. :P

**Disclaimer: **Own nothing.

**Warning:** Mild language.

_**Previously…**_

_But subconscious issues had never caused him any trouble before and there was no reason to give this nagging, uneasy feeling in the pit of his stomach another thought. No reason at all._

_He just needed to sleep._

_----------_

**DECEMBER 13****TH**** 1978**

**HYDE'S ROOM**

_6:59:57_

_6:59:58_

_6:59:59_

_7:00:00_

"_Good morning everyone. This is Jeff Lynn coming at you live from __Disco 99 on this sunny Tuesday morning. Quite a change fro-"_

A swift slap on top of the clock radio cut off the DJ's voice and reminded Steven Hyde that, like every other stiff in America, he had to go to work today.

As he did every morning, Hyde stuffed the radio into his pile of laundry and rolled back over in bed, throwing an arm across his bed to wrap an arm around his still-sleeping girlfriend. But today, something was different. His arm hit thin air. He rolled his head over and squinted open his eyes, staring in fatigued confusion at the empty space. He rolled his head back to the other side of the cot and saw that her clothes and purse had left with her.

"Well, that can't be good."

----------

Already peeved at her early morning disappearance, Hyde exited his bedroom and walked out into the basement, just in time for another bout of déjà vu.

"…and then the mouse just _exploded_!"

"You still after some feline/rodent action, Kelso?" Hyde joked. He pulled a Popsicle out of the deep freeze and settled in his chair, nodding a hello to Jackie, who was filing away at her nails on the dryer, and she waved back slightly.

Kelso glared across the room. "Very funny, _Hyde_. But for your information, I cannot stop my beauty from bringing all kinds of species together!" He laughed. "It's a pretty sweet thing; bringing two different species together in the bonds of holy-doin-it.

"_Holy-doin-it_?" Donna asked with a frown. "I think Pastor Dave once used that in his sermon."

"Pastor Dave is a mad man," Fez remarked from the lawn chair. All eyes moved to his. "One time, he told me that he likes nothing more than to eat some fresh carnage." He narrowed his eyes. "Sick bastard." Donna laughed and looked to her boyfriend for some support. Eric rolled his eyes.

"Fez… are you sure he wasn't saying fresh _cabbage_?"

"Why would he eat fresh cabbage? That's evencrazierthanthecarnage; you know what I am saying?"

Hyde pressed his index fingers against his temples. Fez's run-together sentences were hardly the most joyous way start to the day. Speaking of…

"Why the hell are you guys all here?" Hyde asked, annoyed.

"Breakfast."

"_Jeanie_."

"Year off."

"Eric."

"A ride." That last one perked Hyde's ears. He turned to his girlfriend, who was smoothing her nails away with a file, and presented her with a cheeky grin.

"Babe, I would be more than happy to let you have a ride, but don't you think you'll be late for school?" She kicked his arm in mock disgust but failing horribly at hiding her mild interest in the suggestion.

"Pig."

"Piglet."

She gasped, this time not mockingly. "Did you just call me a pig?" Hyde grinned and flicked the Popsicle stick against his lips.

"Pig_-let._ You got all the stubbornness of a pig but you're just too damn tiny to pose a threat."

Jackie scoffed. "Ugh, well I can tell you right now, that comment just threatened you getting any for the next 3 weeks." She scooted off the dryer and picked up her coat, flying upstairs to head for the Camino. "You coming?" she barked from above. He bowed his head, grimacing.

"On my way."

Donna cooed. "Aw, you two are like an old married couple." Hyde tripped on the bottom step upon hearing what she said.

"I'll be walking the Green Mile before I'm walking down the aisle." Hyde paused in thought. "Hey, that rhymes." He bounded up the stairs and the remaining gang members resumed meaningless conversation until his head appeared poking out of the side of a wall. "That does rhyme, right?" All he got were several disgruntled confirmations but Hyde couldn't say he would have offered much more of a response. "Cool. Too many circles lately and I can't be too careful." Hyde surveyed the room. "No-one's even listening to me. I'm just some guy standing on the stairs talking to myself." He shook his head. "This is how Michael Myers got started."

----------

**EL CAMINO**

This 5 minute drive should not be taking so long, Hyde thought with great annoyance. But one quick glance at the clock radio on the dashboard proved that Hyde's restlessness was nothing but self-concocted.

Hyde figured that the reason for this was a silent car journey coupled with a straight week of fights and debates over shitty, trivial issues. It had him a little on edge and Jackie's unexplained mood swings and constant avoidance of him weren't easing him up any. Please God don't let her be pregnant, Hyde silently prayed.

"Why are you so quiet?" she asked suddenly.

"Because I'm me."

Hyde was tickled to see her accepting that as a valid answer considering there was once a time when she didn't stop talking long enough to ask him why he wasn't talking or allow him to tell her why he wasn't talking in the first place. Hyde could safely say that he did not miss those days, or the daily prescriptions of Aspirin he was forced to take to combat her company. "Why are _you_ so quiet?"

She shrugged. "I figure I've talked enough in my lifetime to allow me some quiet time for at least 8 months."

"Why, 8 months?"

"Maybe because I'll be starting college," she retorted light-heartedly. Hyde couldn't have dialed down the shock on his face if he was a color TV with a standby button on him at all times.

"I thought you weren't going to college. What with your realisation that the people there can get away with wearing synthetic fibres."

"That was exactly what I told the guidance counselor! But she told me, '1220 is far too good an SAT score to ignore and you need to start applying right away to get into the Ivy League.'" Jackie shifted uncomfortably in her seat. "I swear she was getting turned on by the Princeton catalogue."

Hyde blinked a couple more times to make sure he was in fact awake and not living in some freak alternate universe where Jackie might actually be going to, "Princeton? 1220 on the SAT's? Jackie, why the hell didn't you tell me about any of this?" he asked, unsure why he was suddenly so irritated.

She shrugged innocently. "I guess I didn't think it was that big a deal. It's not like you _ever_ want to talk about where we're headed or what our future plans are," she answered, giving each word a biting tone

"Whatever." Tired, he ran his left hand across his forehead. "Look, it's because I don't know, Jackie. These shades don't have a frickin' magic 8 ball hidden in the frames."

She growled, her frustration at their predicament bubbling to the surface. "God, that's exactly why I didn't tell you about this!" Her movements became more and more animated as she grew increasingly agitated. "You can't say a single sentence without making a joke out of it and if you do manage not to make a joke, then it's 'I don't know.'"

Hyde was outraged at the nerve of her calling him on not being communicative towards her. "You're not the one being ignored here one minute and then being fawned over the next like some rag doll! This is jus-"

"God, Steven! Can we please not fight about this while you're driving? You're liable to get us both killed."

Hyde punched the steering wheel, not knowing where else to put his fist. "I don't know why we're even fighting about this. Or what we're fighting about in the first place."

Hyde's grip on the steering wheel was so tight that it was leaving a blackened imprint on his palm. Neither one knew what the hell to say after that.

---------

**GROOVES RECORD STORE**

"And then!" Hyde sniped, slamming a bin onto the ground as Angie hurried behind him, trying in vain to catch it before he destroyed yet another piece of stock, "she says that I can't take things seriously! That I'm always making jokes!" He scoffed and stopped moving to shake his head dramatically. Then he picked up his pace again.

Angie's morning migraine had sufficiently worsened since she came into work and found Hyde muttering and spluttering over yet another fight he had with Jackie. She leaned her back against the cash register and watched half-amused as he haphazardly deposited the record storage bins onto the ground and snagged discarded sleeves from the poorly furnished couch that currently stood as the sole item of furniture in the store. Her eyes stayed with Hyde and she pondered briefly if he was looking for some kind of sympathetic ear from her. Because that was most definitely a genetic failure inherited from the paternal relation. She tuned back in just as he was ranting, "I don't know why I put up with her crap!" Angie snickered, prompting a glare from her brother.

"You put up with it because you love her," she informed him. Now it was Hyde's turn to snicker.

"Says who?"

He carried on with his careless activity while Angie thought best how to tackle this. Once she had settled on a plan, she wasted no time in assuming her authoritative manner. "Well, Jackie is a-"

"Bitch?" Hyde suggested. Angie smiled.

"A lot to handle, is what I was about to say. And unless she is the most _giving_ girl you've ever been with," she teased, earning a smirk from him, "I'm guessing you only put up with her crap because you care about her a lot." Hyde shrugged.

"Whatever".

Angie swore under her breath at his response and settled herself atop an unloaded cardboard box in the middle of the room. "Hyde, look at yourself".

Hyde stopped what he was doing and begrudgingly turned to face her, interest masked by boredom in his expression. "Yeah?"

"You're not a nice person," she stated. Hyde grinned. "And you never do what you're told. You never talk about your feelings and most of what comes out of your mouth ends up being offensive".

"So what's your point?"

Angie sighed helplessly. "It _means_, that Jackie puts up with as much crap from you as you do from her and I'm guessing that means she really loves you as much as you love her". Angie folded her hands on her lap, staring at him earnestly and hoping that what she said had an effect.

Hyde rocked back on his feet and pursed his lips, readying himself for a response. "Yeah, you don't know this about me. But I don't do this. So, bye bye!" His silly grin and playful wave were all it took to make her throw in the towel.

"Whatever," she murmured, dragging her feet to the back office.

"Feels good, doesn't it?" he called after her.

----------

**POINT PLACE HIGH SCHOOL PRINCIPAL'S OFFICE**

"A cheerleading award?" Jackie beamed. "Talk about a dream come true."

"Don't get carried away," the principal sniped. "This school is in a slump, Miss Burkhart. The football team hasn't won a game all season and we've barely sold any tickets for the school prize-giving ceremony tomorrow night. We need a new award to drum up some interest; someone suggested your squad and I didn't care enough to argue. So be there by 7.30 or I'll be forced to put the Macey girl on stage." The lust in his eyes was enough to make Jackie want to puke.

"Don't worry, Mr. Principal. I'll be there!"

"Good. The school needs a morale boost right now and we can't have anyone acting like they're not a team player."

Jackie took a break from mentally planning her outfit to ask, "Well… can I invite a few people?"

"Do what you want. I won't be there."

----------

**GROOVES RECORD STORE**

Hyde stood behind the cash register at Grooves with Donna sitting on a stool on the opposite side, eating a vile smelling piece of tuna and spraying breadcrumbs all over his receipts. "So are you and Jackie still fighting?" she asked him.

Hyde's head snapped up. "What makes you think we're fighting?"

"Well, because she hasn't gloated about her boyfriend being better than mine in every single way for a while. That, and she keeps calling into my show, asking me to play "_How__Can__You__Mend__A__Broken__Heart__?"_

"Don't pay any attention to her. She's just freaking out about the future, and college and stuff. And she's expecting me to have all the answers for her. She'll simmer down in a few weeks once the new ABBA record comes out."

"Wait. Jackie wants to go to college?

"Seems that way," he muttered.

"But why? She's always said college was for ugly people who needed to be hidden from society for another four years."

"Yeah, well. Now she's decided she can do better than Point Place and isn't going to carry on slumming it with the rest of us."

Hyde saw her scolding him with one of those 'looks' that could send a man's balls back up inside his body. "If Jackie wants to do something meaningful with her life, then you should feel proud that you've had such a positive influence on her. And that she's not with some guy who's only in the relationship so she'll buy him a duck."

"What?"

"Come on, Angie! I promise its quacking won't ruin the mood. I once did it with a monkey in the room and it was still magical. Well, it wasn't a monkey so much as it was Fez," Kelso said laughing. "But he was still eating a banana and scratching his butt!"

"And you think Jackie's crazy for wanting to get _away_ from this group?" Donna joked.

Hyde rubbed his knuckles into the counter top and huffed out a heavy breath before bringing up the ambiguous little plagues of doubt that had crept into his mind in the past few weeks. "Alright, I'm gonna tell you something. But you can't mention it to Jackie or Forman or anyone. You know how Jackie's always going on about us getting married, or becoming a nationally-touring-husband-and-wife-weather-team?" Donna nodded, having heard this notion from Jackie every night they shared a room together. "Well, for whatever reason, it's been really bugging me lately."

Donna frowned. "But it's always bugged you. You've been throwing her over your shoulder and locking her out of the basement ever since you guys got together."

"But that's when I knew it was all just bullshit!" Hyde smacked his knuckles into the counter top a little harder, but not enough to break the glass. He didn't need an audience when he was pouring his mind out.

"But for the past few weeks, I've actually been imagining what being married to Jackie would be like, and it feels like a fuckin nightmare."

Donna shook her head and swallowed down her food quickly. "Hyde – I went through exactly the same thing with Eric. It just means you're not ready to get married yet."

"Or maybe it means I just shouldn't marry Jackie," he retorted, sounding not-so-pained at what he was implying to Donna. She, on the other hand, was so speechless that she could only crack out a few vowel sounds before the woman of the hour burst through the front door. "Crap. She's coming," Hyde whispered. He started at Donna head-on. "Not a word." Jackie bounded up to the counter, practically vibrating.

"Guys! You're never gonna believe what happened to me at school today!"

"They erected a statue in honour of Satan and you were offended it didn't look more like you?" Eric wondered.

"No, but you're not far off about the honouring me with a statue part! I'm getting an award for cheerleading! And you're all invited to the ceremony. Except you, Angie," she said, stunning the group.

"Why not me???"

"Well, it's nothing personal. I just don't want your kind there on my big night," Jackie announced with a shrug.

"Excuse me?"

"You know. Girls with giant hair. You'll block my light while the photographers are trying to take my picture." Jackie turned and, switching from bitch to sweetheart in a moment, leaned over the counter and worked the pout only she knew how to use. "So, Steven... do you think you could ask your dad if we could borrow his limo?"

"I don't think Steven can go," Angie smugly stated. "He and I have to meet Daddy to go over some paperwork."

"But, _Steven!_ You have to come! What good is having an older boyfriend if you can't show him off in front of your bitchy classmates? Please come! Please! Please! Please! Please!"

Her whining and screeching took Hyde back to the days of her persistently screaming "Michael!" whenever they were in hearing distance. "Alright! I'll be there. But just to see your bit. I'm not hanging around that place all night like these idiots."

Jackie smiled and leaned over the counter to give him a quick kiss. "Thank you, baby. I'm getting my award at 9.15 so be there by 9?" She turned back to the group. "Let's go, Donna. We've lots to do before tomorrow night."

The truth hit the lumberjack like she would hit a tree with an axe. "Oh no."

"Oh yes. We're going shopping!" Jackie bounced on her feet, clapping wildly.

Once the girls had left and business had resumed, the big-haired pariah felt the need to ask every customer in the store,

"My hair isn't that big, is it?"

---------

**DECEMBER 14****TH**** 1978**

**POINT PLACE HIGH SCHOOL**

Hyde swerved into the school parking lot and slammed the breaks at the nearest empty space. W.B. had cancelled the meeting at the last minute but Hyde had still talked himself into a solo circle so intense that he had soon written a 12-page rant about pen ink being filled with CIA-approved sedatives that causes society to be unaware of government cover-ups And when the rant was done, Hyde had busted the pen and splattered the ink cartridge all over the section detailing a pen's right not to be a tool of conspiracy. It was hardly the most coherent or well-structured piece of writing he had ever come up with but the idea had come to him during a drug-induced haze, so he wasn't trying to match wits with Shakespeare or anything. But he still planned on mailing it in the morning providing Jackie didn't break every one of his fingers for being late to her prize-giving ceremony.

Hyde slipped into the auditorium and squeezed into a seat between Fez and Bob, preparing himself for an evening of "Anything You Can Eat, I Can Eat Faster" conversations between the pair. He scanned the room for Jackie and caught her sitting by the stage, scanning for something, or someone, herself.

Hyde wasn't sure what colour her dress was or what fabric it was made of, but he was certainly going to keep his legs closed until he got her back to his room and got her dress as far away from her body as possible. He felt a nudge against his right elbow. "What?" he murmured, his eyes never leaving Jackie.

"I'm hungry!" Fez whined.

Hyde gave him an annoyed look. "What am I, your mother? Go get something to eat if you're hungry." Fez pouted and complained about being sleepy or something. Hyde wasn't really paying attention to him or to the Vice Principal's recycled ramble about academic achievement and how every student there should be very proud for something that Hyde didn't quite care to catch. He was still paying close attention to Jackie's form that had shifted enough that he could now see her face clearly. Like her dress, he didn't know the details but he knew she looked sensational. But when Fez's persisted moans and elbow nudges continued for another five minutes, Hyde finally gave up and growled his way towards the refreshments table in the corridor outside the auditorium. That's when he ran into Laurie Forman's predecessor.

"Mrs. Burkhart. How are you?" he asked, in a voice even faker as her breasts. As good-looking as she was for her age, her increasingly frequent disappearances from Jackie's life had knocked her desirability down by a few points. "I thought you were in Venice."

Pam smiled so wide, you'd think she just had a new set of teeth fitted and was trying to nourish them with mini-quiches. "Oh, I was. But I had to come back for my little girl's big night." She looked him up and down, giving his ratty jeans and wrinkled shirt an unsure smile. "And you're here to… perform your janitorial duties!" Pam laughed kindly. "Well, you've had a tough life, Steven. I'll be sure not to dump my litter on the ground and add to your workload."

"I'm actually here for Jackie."

Whether it was what he said or the contempt with how he said it, the shock on her face was enough to make Hyde question just how well-informed Jackie had been keeping her mother lately. The falsities and pleasantries dissipated and only a shitload of tension remained.

"So you and my daughter are still involved, I take it?"

"Yes, we are," Hyde said, keeping it even.

Pam placed her purse down on the refreshments table and folded her arms tightly into her chest. "Steven, I do not presume to know every little detail of my daughter's life-"

"Clearly."

She smirked at him. "But I was under the impression that she was looking to expand her horizons beyond the confines of this town and the _people_ in it."

He had to hand it to her. She knew how to work in a burn.

"She is," he replied, his tone a little tighter this time.

"And I would hope you plan to encourage her in furthering herself and her education. I'd hate to think you might stand in her way for your own benefit."

Hyde's eyes flickered to the stage where he could see Jackie muttering and smiling to herself. Most likely practicing her speech. It was 9.20 so she would be going onstage at any moment. His eyes came back to Pam.

"Jackie can do whatever she wants. I'm not going to make her give up anything."

"And if, in 6 months, you two are still together and she decides she would rather stay in Point Place with you, would you still encourage her to go somewhere where her talents would be better appreciated?"

Hyde shifted his weight from foot to foot, trying to impose a more intimidating posture upon her. But she was verbalizing a large part of what had been troubling him recently. He and Jackie didn't show any plans of slowing down any time soon, and if push came to shove, could he let her give up the chance to make something of herself simply because he liked having her around some of the time but would never admit it to her in a million years?

"Look, Steven, I don't mean to sound cold or heartless or-"

"Like your usual self?" Hyde cut in with empty sarcasm.

"Jackie is going places. And you… are not," she said, not lacking much in bluntness. "Maybe you would be happy to still be living in a basement 10 years down the line, but do you honestly think my daughter would be?"

Hyde didn't even have to think. Of course she wouldn't. His fantasy of them living together in the basement when they were 60 years old had long since worn off its novelty value for both of them, and he was now well aware that Jackie didn't chase after him like the love-sick puppy she once was.

Jackie's name was called out and Pam left him without a moment's hesitation, flouncing into the auditorium and, as ever, drawing attention to her when it was supposed to be her daughter's moment in the sun. Tearing his glare away from her, Hyde looked over to the stage where he saw Jackie standing; ready to accept her award from the Vice Principal and looking so happy and at ease in the spotlight. She really did look at home on that stage; standing before a relatively packed crowd and speaking with such confidence and pride. And here he was standing just outside this room, off to the side, and away from the spotlight. He wasn't about to get all philosophical with himself but it was becoming clear to him that his place in life was going to be very different than Jackie's.

This was all giving him a headache. He didn't know what to think about the situation or what the situation even was. He just needed to get out of there for a while. Looking back at Jackie once more, seeing her so alive and vibrant in front of the crowd, he could see she didn't need her white knight there to save her.

While reversing out of the school parking lot, Hyde made a silent apology to his fingers for the damage Jackie would do to them when he next saw her.

_To be continued…_

----------

**A/N: **Finally done lol. I wish more could have happened in this chapter to make up for the wait, but that's the way it goes. I'd love to hear what you guys have to say. But keep it nice, please. Wait a few chapters until my confidence is back before the flames flood in. ;)


	13. Christmas Trumps Winter

**The Morning After… what?**

Chapter 13 – Christmas Trumps Winter.

**A/N:** Hey, guys. Four months is long enough to go without updating, so here's the next chapter for you. Your patience and support has been overwhelming and I can't thank you enough.

**Disclaimer:** Own nothing.

----------

**DECEMBER 14****TH**** 1978**

**HYDE'S ROOM**

With his dresser pressed against the door to prevent unwelcome intrusions and a cigarette nestled comfortably between the first and second fingers of his right hand, Hyde lay back on his bed, propping himself lazily against the cracked wall and wearing a revised version of the suit he'd begrudgingly put on only a short while earlier.

The cigarette was keeping his hand busy, but his mind? Not so much.

Pam's little butt-in at prize-night had given the 'f' word more than enough reason to rear its unwanted head in Hyde's train of thought.

Jackie wanted a future.

Big shocker. He'd always known that. But up until now he'd always been able to evade her attempts at jumpstarting any conversations about their future by pointing out a pimple that wasn't there or a split end that not even a microscope could detect. Jackie said, "Let's talk"; Hyde made up some bullshit excuse. That's how it worked and that's how Hyde had been hoping it would continue to work until the day they both developed Alzheimer's and lost the ability to keep track of where their fights had left off.

And on those rare occasions when he did give serious thought to where he might be a few years from now, he didn't see himself being any more ready for a committed, permanent lifestyle than he was now. Jackie would stay in Point Place instead of going to college and he might be lucky to have not yet screwed up his job at the record store. They would have next to no money and odds were they'd end up resenting each other for missed opportunities. And that's if they were even together by then! Aside from being 19 and still dealing with the occasional bout of acne, Hyde reminded himself daily that they hadn't had the most stable relationship up until now and the current level of tension between them demonstrated just how much difficulty they continued to have when it came to addressing problems head-on. How could he ever think seriously of having a future with Jackie when he didn't even like working things out with her 364 days out of the year?

"_Steven?!"_

Hyde forced his eyes open. Had he heard that for real or was the little Jackie who followed him around in his mind about to make a demand?

"_Steven, are you down there?!"_

He wagered she was for real. He pushed himself off the wall put out the cigarette on his ashtray. Normally he wouldn't smoke cigarettes in here because Jackie didn't like the smell, but he was all out of 'other' stuff and he hadn't counted on an appearance from her tonight.

Stiff, Hyde got up and pulled the dresser away from the door, allowing Jackie to come in. The change in her expression, from anxiety to relief to irritation, confused him somewhat. "Where the hell did you go?!" she shouted, giving him a patented smack on the arm with her purse.

Shrugging, he replied, "Nowhere. I just needed some fresh air."

"Fresh air? Steven, you were _supposed_ to give me a ride home!"

He scratched the back of his head. "Right… yeah. Sorry… I forgot." Feeling awkward in his own body, Hyde sat back down on the edge of his bed and stretched his left arm out behind him, pressing his hand to the mattress to keep from falling back. He shut his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose.

"What's wrong?" Jackie asked, her anxiety-to-relief-to-irritation changing again into concern.

He shook his head. "I'm just beat. It's been a long day." He looked around him. "Actually, I think I'm gonna go to sleep."

"Okay, let me just call my mom and tell her-"

She started to get up when he snatched her arm.

"No, Jackie… you should go home. Pam will go nuts if you stay here."

Jackie huffed, not believing him. "Steven, my mom wouldn't even know where my bedroom is to check if I was there. I'll just stay here." She tilted her head. "Unless you don't want me to…"

Ding. The girl got it. Hyde was feeling so deeply agitated tonight and all he wanted was to be left alone to sleep for all eternity. But, of course, he had no chance of getting Jackie to comply without creating yet another squabble he really couldn't be bothered with. So, he relented.

"No, it's cool. You can stay here." Hyde swung his feet up onto the bed and laid his head on the pillow. Jackie paused, but said nothing and walked out of the room to the bathroom upstairs. She came back down a few minutes later.

"Oh, Steven! I forgot to show you my awar…" When she came in, Hyde had fallen asleep, lying on his side and facing the wall, his back facing her. Jackie placed her 12" high cheerleader on his dresser and settled on a chair on the other side of the room. She sat there, silently watching his back, praying for this between them distance to end, until she too allowed a turbulent dream to take her in.

----------

**DECEMBER 22****ND**** 1978**

**THE HUB**

The Hub had an annual tradition of sucking the Christmas spirit out of its clientele by putting up a 2ft high brown tree in the bathroom, decorating the walls with ripped tinsel and replaying White Christmas all day long. To one group of individuals, none of whom were particular Bing Crosby enthusiasts; it was comforting to see this long-standing tradition carrying on.

"It just wouldn't be Christmas in Point Place if The Hub didn't smell like wet dog," Eric remarked. He was sitting on one of the three chairs positioned around the table with Jackie and Donna on either side of him.

"I'm just glad my dad isn't dressing up as Santa this year," Donna added. "He nearly brought a lawsuit against the mall after they told him he couldn't do it anymore."

Jackie gasped, horrified. "Your dad tried to sue the _mall_?" She shivered. "That Judas!"

"I'm happy too, Donna," Fez said from the booth where he sat next to Kelso. "Bob is so big and jolly and I think Santa might feel threatened by him."

Jackie frowned. "Fez, Santa isn't rea-" Donna kicked her under the table. "Ow! That hurt, you goon!" Jackie made a lunge for Donna, but Eric managed to hold the two women apart, barely.

"Okay, you two need to… Kelso, can you give me some help here?" Eric was losing his grip and Jackie and Donna were about to make him the butter in an oestrogen sandwich.

"No, I'm good," Kelso replied, his tongue hanging like a Great Bernard.

Just then, Hyde and Kitty walked into The Hub. "Mommy! Thank God!" Eric cried. Donna and Jackie stopped their clawing to stare at him and it seemed the entire Hub was staring at Eric after his outburst. His cheeks flushed. "I mean… Mother, good to see you," he said, adopting a baritone sound.

The distraction seemed to have calmed the girls enough so that they broke off the fight and settled for glaring at each other from their seats instead.

Kitty looked down at the two girls like a disappointed mother. "Well, what was all that about? It wasn't a very festive display of affection!"

"Sure it was," Hyde said. "Giving each other angry looks across the table, trying to kill each other; sounds like every Christmas I ever had growing up." As always, this evoked enough sympathy from Kitty to throw her focus off the catfight and even off what she'd come into The Hub to tell the group in the first place.

"Then I am going to make sure you have the best Christmas anyone has ever had!" Kitty proclaimed, pulling him down to kiss his cheek and then running out of the place sobbing.

"That is one crazy lady," Fez remarked. The others nodded and he added, "I would do her in a heartbeat."

The others wretched.

----------

**FORMAN KITCHEN**

Eric, Donna, Jackie and Hyde are sitting at the table. Eric is doing a Death Star jigsaw puzzle, Donna and Hyde are eating, and Jackie is reading a TV Guide magazine.

"Ugh, this is the worst part of the holidays. All these washed-up TV actors and singers doing a bunch of lame variety shows. Perry Como? Who wants to see his butt-ugly face?"

Eric smiled tightly. "There's such a warm atmosphere when you're around, Jackie."

"Yeah, what's with the Scrooge attitude all of a sudden?" Donna asked. "Last year, you sent out printed invites for a showing of _A Flintstones Christmas_ at your house."

"To which none of you RSVP'd to!" Jackie huffed. "I can't seem to get into the Christmas spirit this year, which is strange because there are so many dances and parties coming up…"

"No," Hyde answered through his spaghetti-filled mouth.

"You didn't know what I was going to ask!"

"Does it involve talking to people and/or dancing?"

"Yes."

"Then, no," he smirked.

Jackie groaned. "Please, Steven!" He shook his head. "Oh, come on! Think of it as a way of making up for bailing on me when I got my award and for being so moody lately."

"I am not moody; I'm devoid of moods."

"Good! Then you won't be able to show any objections to coming to the Ladies of Point Place Christmas Party with me tomorrow night," she announced, her voice sparkling with smugness.

Hyde sighed. "So, if I go, you won't be pissed about me missing your award thing anymore?"

Jackie grinned. "You know how little it takes to make me happy." Hyde, Eric and Donna stared, Jackie rolled her eyes dramatically. "I know. Crazy, spoiled brat making another demand. But, Steven, pleeeeeeeeeeease! I really want to go to this party and if you don't go, they'll make me sit at the SLOPP's table and I am just going to go on at you about it for the rest of our lives. Can you imagine that, Steven? Me going on, and on, and on, and on, and on, and on, and on, and-"

"Oh, dear God, _I_ will take you if you will stop doing that!" Eric exclaimed.

Fed-up, Hyde relented.

"Fine, I'll go."

She smiled her Jackie-smile and clapped excitedly. "Yay!" She jumps out of her seat. "Now, I can go buy something to wear for tomorrow night. Donna, you want to come?"

"Will you let me buy what I want?"

Jackie's face turned. "God, no! We're not going to a barn dance!" She grabbed Donna's arm and started pulling her up. She looked back to Hyde. "Now, you promise you'll come with me to the party tomorrow night?"

"Whatever gets you off my back," he muttered, waving her off. The girls leave and Eric and Hyde are left alone in the kitchen. "Man, can you believe her?"

Eric smirks. "It's frightening that this is the most grounded she's ever been." Eric fumbles with a few pieces of his jigsaw and decides to mention something he's been curious about. "So, Hyde. Why did you really leave the award thing last week?"

Hyde sighed and dropped his fork. "Did Jackie ask you to get it out of me? I swear her mind doesn't have an off-button." Hyde stares down at his plate, swirling his spaghetti. "Did you know Jackie got a 1220 on her SATs?"

"Oh, dear God, the devil has moles in the education system!"

"Seriously, Forman. She's even thinking about college." Hyde swooped up a ball of spaghetti onto his fork and let it drop back down onto the plate.

"Wow," Eric murmured. "I thought all she wanted in life was a guy, a house and the universal banning of polyester."

"I think now she's finally realising that she's not getting that stuff out of me any time soon." Hyde met Eric's eyes. "And she's not the patient type, you know?"

"Aw, man, don't even worry about it. As ungodly and unnatural as it is, she cares about you. She's not gonna run off and leave."

"Maybe she should. It's not like this town is crawling with opportunities for her. I mean, what do I say if she asks me whether or not she should go to college? 'I don't know, Jackie. Let's smoke a joint and never talk about it'."

Eric dropped his voice to keep anyone from hearing this rare moment of seriousness between himself and Hyde. "Where's this all coming from? You never give any thought to stuff like this?"

"Not all of us are as vocal as you are about what we're thinking, Forman." Hyde shifted forward in his seat and rested his arms on the table. "Let me ask you something. When you proposed to Donna, had you really thought about what you were asking of her, or were you so caught up in the moment of it all that you didn't really think about the whole practical side of it?" Eric's eyes lit up. "Simmer down, Erine, I'm not proposing to Jackie. I just want to know why you were so willing to commit like that."

Eric cleared his throat a few times. The intensity of Hyde's words was unnerving him. "Well… guys always say that marriage is like a life sentence and I thought, 'Well, what's that sentence consist of? Being with her everyday? Waking up with her? Taking care of her? Okay, I can do that.'"

Hyde blinked. "That was it?"

"Yeah, but bear in mind I didn't actually go through with the sentence…" They both chuckled for a moment, but Hyde's demeanour quickly became more subdued.

"Maybe I'm not cut out to be the kind of guy who can do that."

Eric shrugged. "Maybe. But would you have thought a year and a half ago that you'd be cut out for being in love? With Jackie, no less!"

Hyde grinned. "Yeah, it's pretty crazy, me and her." He stood up. "Maybe that's why I'm so unsure. Me and her were a crazy idea to begin with."

"What do you mean?"

Hyde scratched his neck. "I don't know. I don't believe in all that Cinderella 'happily ever after' crap, but I don't think you should be this unsure about something if you're with the right person in the first place." Eric stared at him, not knowing what to say. Hyde smirked. "Just forget it, Forman. Let's just pretend this conversation ever happened."

----------

**DECEMBER 23****RD**

**FORMAN DRIVEWAY**

After Kelso had the ingenious idea of using the hood of Hyde's car as the launch-pad for a pack of bottle-rockets, Hyde was left with the unenviable task of wiping it clean. As he was nearing completion, he saw Jackie slowly approaching out of the corner of his eye.

"Hi," she greeted him quietly.

"Hey." She leaned against a pillar, watching him work. "I thought you were helping Mrs. Forman."

"I am. She asked me to pick up some mini-quiches she left here."

"Fez has probably gotten to them already."

Jackie laughed weakly. "Probably."

A night of being unable to pretend the conversation never happened and this morning's arrival of toys had provided Hyde with a convenient excuse to get out of tonight's party and an evening of huffing and yawning at Jackie's side as they talked to the phoniest creatures this part of Wisconsin had to offer. Jackie continued to watch him as he worked and, with a tilt of the head, she asked, "Any chance of an apology while I'm here?"

Hyde, bent across the front of the car, let out a deep sigh. "Jackie, it's just a stupid party that I wouldn't even enjoy. Why does it matter so much if I'm there?"

"Because I want you to be there. You don't have to want to go for yourself, but I'd like to think that doing it for me is enough reason to go." She waited for a response, but Hyde carried on wiping the car like she'd never spoken. "Steven, will you please say something?"

"Nothing I say seems to make you happy lately."

"That's because lately you're acting like the immature idiot you were when we were kids."

"Did you ever think that maybe I'm happy being this way?" Hyde continued to wipe as he spoke. "That I like not having to act mature and grown-up all the time?"

"No, I _don't_ think you're happy being this way all the time. I think you're _comfortable_ being this way and I think you like knowing that none of your friends are ever going to expect more from you because it makes it that much easier for you to make _me_ look like the demanding girlfriend who is always trying to change you!"

"You _are_ always trying to change me, Jackie."

She threw her hands up. "Well, someone has to! God knows you won't do it yourself!" Hyde finally through the cloth down on the hood.

"Then why the hell are you with me if you're not happy with me!"

"Because you're worth it, Steven!"

Their yelling no doubt had the entire street's rapt attention.

Jackie swallowed, collecting herself and relying on the pillar for physical support. "You have spent… so long playing this 'cool guy' role that you've convinced yourself that it's who you are. But you are so much more! God! Do you honestly think I have spent all this time with you because I think concert tees are attractive?"

"What does it matter? You are always asking for more than I can give you."

Her mouth fell open in disbelief. "What _you_ give? Tell me, what exactly have you given me? An actual conversation once every 6 months? The knowledge of how badly you want to do my mom?"

"Jackie-"

"Because I didn't realise those things should make me feel content and secure about our relationship. Now, maybe if this was a year ago, I'd feel different. Back when you forgave me on Valentine's Day for that thing with Michael or when you shaved your beard to cheer me up. Those kinds of things made me feel lucky to be your girlfriend, Steven, but… lately," she shakes her head with disappointment, "lately, it's like you've taken 5 steps back and you aren't even trying to stop it."

Hyde leaned his fists on the hood, undoing the job he'd spent what seemed like forever working at. A lot of what Jackie said was on the mark, but a lot if it was also way off base. She didn't understand. How could she? He didn't know how to explain himself without opening up a brand new set of questions he had even less answers for. They were both having a crisis of faith about their relationship and it didn't look like Jackie was going to be the one to stand up and fight for them this time.

Last Christmas was a lot easier.

----------

**LADIES OF POINT PLACE PARTY**

"Are they fighting again?" Donna asked. Fez took the mini-quiches away from his mouth long enough to follow Donna's finger and see Jackie and Hyde in yet another tense standoff.

"Just think of it this way; the angrier they get, the hotter the make-up sex," Kelso chimed. Donna laughed despite her best efforts and the three of them acted as spectators in this lover's quarrel.

Jackie ranted, "Things are changing, Steven. I mean, we're practically grown up now."

"Yeah, we are," Hyde agreed, "and you know what? I'm just trying to have a little fun before I settle down and life goes to crap."

Jackie blinked. She had to have heard him wrong. "That's what you think? That a life with me will be crap?"

Hyde's good sense told him to bail and that if she hadn't figured it out by now, she never would. "That's not what I said," he started calmly. He could maybe explain himself if she didn't interr-

"No, it's okay."

There goes that plan.

"At least now I know how you feel." With that, she left him with one last glare and walked away.

"Jackie…" he feebly called after her. "Dammit." Against his good sense, he walked after her and caught up at her side before she could take her anger out on an unsuspecting LOPP. He took her by the arm and spun her to face him. "Can we talk outside?" He had asked nicely, so he hoped she knew better than to say no.

She didn't say no; she didn't say anything for that face. She just walked out through the back door and he followed until they reached outside. They stood on either side of the doorstep; Jackie standing with her arms folded and her eyes swarming the ground; Hyde hooking his thumbs onto his jeans pockets and looking straight at her.

"I don't want to fight, alright?"

She met his eyes and held them there, not blinking but shivering slightly. "So, what do you want?"

He spoke as calmly as before, almost too calmly in the face of her quivering voice. "I want all these stupid misunderstandings to stop. You were right about some of the stuff you said earlier, but you also got some things wrong."

Her tone and body language remained the same. Foreign. "Like what?"

"I'm not trying to make you look like a demanding girlfriend, alright? But I don't want you to think that I want a life with you right now either." That changed her body language.

"Is that why you brought me out here?! To tell me you don't want me?" She started inside, but he pulled her back again.

"No, and if you just listen to me for 5 minutes, you'll understand." He waited a moment for her bloody pressure to decrease before continuing. "I don't want us to end, but I don't know if us being together is the best thing either." He wanted to scream. Maybe that would sound more coherent than what he was saying.

"I don't understand. You want us to be together… but you don't think we should be?"

"Not now anyway. You're gonna go to college and-"

"Is that why you're so freaked out all of a sudden?" she asked, sounding a bit more caring. "You think I'm gonna push you out of my life?"

Hyde just maintained looking at her. "If you go to college, we'll see each other maybe once a month if you go to a school in Wisconsin, right? Be realistic." She nodded, albeit reluctantly. "But if you stay, it's only a matter of time before you wonder if you missed a good opportunity and you might start resenting yourself for it. Or me." Jackie wasn't saying anything, which made him happy. It meant she was taking in what he was saying. "You want to know if I see us together in 10 years, but what I wonder is whether we'll be happy and confident that we made the right choice staying together." Hyde bowed his head and put his hands to his face. All this talking clearly didn't agree with him, but he was almost at the finish line. "And right now, I'm not confident that we will, so… yeah, I'm not putting in the effort to fix things with you because I don't know that it's gonna be worth it in the long run."

All done.

_Sniffle_

His head snapped up and he saw Jackie dabbing her eyes with her sleeves. "Are you okay?" She looked up at him, a bittersweet smile working its way through the redness.

"Wonderful. That speech really made my Christmas. I couldn't have asked for more from you!"

Watching her run back inside, Hyde so badly wanted to yell a stream of swear words at her retreating back, but he settled for kicking the brick wall instead.

_To be continued…_

----------

**A/N:** I know Hyde would never be hat vocal about his feelings, but I figure he owed Jackie an explanation for his behaviour during Winter. Don't hate me for putting JH through such a rough time! The light at the end of the tunnel isn't going anywhere for these two.

Please let me know what you thought of this!


	14. Then, Don't Give Up On Me

**The Morning After… what?**

Chapter 14 – Then, don't give up on me.

**A/N:** Hi again. Thanks for supporting this story after such a long absence. I hope the support and the updates keep on coming because I'm really excited about where the story is headed. You'll notice I changed parts of the break-up scene in Don't Lie to Me to fit the story a little neater, but the basic exchange remains. For the last three chapters, I've been showing the negative effects of the dream on Hyde's attitude towards his relationship with Jackie. Now, I'm going to delve into the positive effects for the both of them.

**Warning:** A bit of language and a bit of grown-up stuff, but nothing to cover your eyes from.

**Disclaimer:** Own nothing.

----------

_Watching her run back inside, Hyde so badly wanted to yell a stream of swear words at her retreating back, but he settled for kicking the brick wall instead._

----------

**DECEMBER 28****TH**** 1978**

**FORMAN LIVING ROOM**

Ever thankful for Kitty's inexhaustible charity, Hyde's feet basked in the warmth of the slippers she'd bought him, his tongue tingled with the hot chocolate she'd handed him and his brain gladly shut off as he reclined on the mountain of pillows she had placed around him. All this because of the tiniest of sneezes he had produced at dinner, but Kitty was never going to be one to pass up a chance to baby one of her babies.

Something made his mind resist complete surrender and he was pretty certain that something wouldn't be coming to check up on him as she normally would when he came down with a case of the sniffles.

No, he had made sure Jackie wouldn't come within 20 feet of him after his performance at the Ladies of Point Place party nearly a week ago. They hadn't spoken since, save for a brief and bitter exchange where her public glossing-over of his December 23rd revelation caused Hyde to do the same thing in return. If, "I'm just starting to realise you might never be the man I'd dreamed you'd be," was all she had to say after everything he'd told her, then he wasn't going to make a repeat effort to ease their problems.

_She_ would have to make the next move.

----------

**AT THE SAME TIME, OUTSIDE JANIE'S WEDDING RECEPTION**

After humiliating herself in front of Donna, the Formans and her idol, Stacey Wanamaker; Jackie had ran out of the wedding reception and out to the front of the hotel where she sought refuge on a secluded bench. It was obscured by the parking lot and it would give her enough time to calm down and repress all the embarrassment she felt before it was time to face her friends and family. But when Fez came running up to her, she nixed that plan.

"What are you doing out here?! You're going to miss Janie throwing her bouquet!"

Jackie wiped her nose and under her eyes. "I don't care, Fez. I'm such an idiot." She whipped her head up at him. "Why did you let me go through with this? You should have talked me out of it!"

"Um, let's see. You hit, you bite, you throw and you kick!" he said, making a show of counting each of her quirks on his hand. "I wasn't going to get in your way."

"Well, you should have."

Fez sat next to her on the bench. "What's wrong, Jackie?"

"My boyfriend's a jerk," she snapped. Her face crumpled and she turned it into Fez's shoulder as she broke down sobbing. "_Emd hi kluv immm!"_

"What?"

She raised her head, crying, "And I love him!"

She threw her head back down on his shoulder. Fez awkwardly patted her arm and looked around for an escape. When he couldn't find one, he resigned himself to being Jackie's crying shoulder for the night.

Later, once her tears had slowed down enough for her to no longer require Fez's comfort or company, she thanked him, hugged him and let him cop a quick feel to show how grateful she was that he had allowed her the opportunity to cry all the helplessness out of her body.

Now, she felt decisive and in control, and she planned to take advantage of it – despite already knowing what the outcome would be.

**----------**

**TWO HOURS LATER**

**THE BASEMENT**

Pretending that she was engaged to Fez, a.k.a. Prince Eduardo, wasn't the move Hyde had anticipated from Jackie. However, it did further anger him to see that everything he'd told her had simply gone in one ear, been edited to remove any word that didn't include "marriage" and had gone out the other.

Hyde was sitting in his usual chair, with his arms folded and his feet propped up on the Johnny Carson stool, as Jackie and Donna would refer to it as. The T.V. was on, but whatever Point Place's cable-access station had to offer tonight wasn't holding much allure for Hyde. His attention barely lifted to the sound of the basement door opening and the sight of Jackie hesitantly stepping into the room.

"Hey," she greeted evenly.

"Hey," he responded, even more so. He kept his eyes on the television. "I thought you'd be on a plane back to Prince Eduardo-land by now." Hyde could sense her eyes roll as she closed the door.

"Donna's mouth is a big as her feet," she droned, stuffing her hands into her jean pockets and making her way over to him. She stood expectantly in front of the couch, looking down at him.

He sighed deeply. "Jackie, what the hell were you thinking?" He at last made eye contact with her.

Jackie nodded her head and swayed her body slightly, knowing she had a right to be admonished. "Look, Steven, I know it was a crazy thing to do. It's just… I wanted to know what it would be like to be planning a life and a wedding and everything. I mean, that's all I ever wanted…and I was starting to think that was never going to happen with you." Her meek and innocent finish only seemed to accelerate the rise of Hyde's blood pressure. His hands stiffened on his arms and they made their way up to his face as he rose from his seat.

"Are we back on _this_ again?!" He faced her and she found the agitation in his stance pretty damn intimidating. "What is your problem? Why is it you can't just be happy with what we've got?!"

"Fuck intimidation," she thought.

"Because I'm _**not**_, Steven!!" she exploded. "I'm not happy being with someone who wants to control what I can talk about and won't tell me why!"

"I did tell-"

"You told me you were scared!" Her voice broke. "And it's okay if you are! I'm not asking for a proposal right this second. I just need to know that we have a future together…" she said, her gusto beginning to fail her. "Can't you just give me some kind of sign or just a tiny glimmer of hope that maybe _someday_ we'll get married?" she pleaded.

"Jackie – I don't know."

Why couldn't she get that? He'd only spent eighteen months giving her sporadic glimpses into his inner-thoughts and then, out of the blue, dumped an avalanche of cold truth on her two days before Christmas, following which they proceeded to ignore each other and he offered no further explanation for his behaviour. It's not like he'd been unreasonable.

Jackie stomped her foot the way she would when he wouldn't drive do what she asked, but this stomp carried a little more force. Hyde glanced down and saw it had marked the floor. Her gusto had returned.

"That's _all_ you _ever_ say! Please, Steven! Please, just say _anything _besides 'I don't know'. Anything else!"

Her eyes searched his for a moment, the change in his body language giving her hope for some degree of future happiness with him. But he knew how to extinguish it, and he didn't waste time.

"I don't know," he repeated in a broken tone. He bowed his head like a boy who was too ashamed to look his mother in the eye for fear of seeing disappointment in her eyes.

"Then, I can't be with you," she told him. There wasn't any demanding or antagonism in her voice. She was telling him like it is, just like he had always done for her.

"Jackie, don't threaten me, okay? It's not going to work."

He had by now raised his head to confront the disappointment before him. And yet, when he looked at Jackie, she seemed almost lighter than she had done before. Like there was no longer a dead weight pulling her down and draining the life from her face. Maybe he was getting a little carried away with hyperbole, but she did honestly appear more at peace with their situation.

"I'm not threatening you, Steven. Look, I can't waste any more of my time on you if it's not gonna happen for us…" she trailed off, giving him one last chance to tell her otherwise.

He didn't.

"Okay, well, at least now I know." She let out another breath and turned away from him. She wiped the collecting water from her eye and walked out the door.

----------

**DECEMBER 10****TH**** 1979**

**UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, LOS ANGELES**

**JACKIE AND JERRY'S DORM ROOM**

Jackie walked in the door and threw a Bible-sized bundle of notes and study guides hurtling towards the wall directly above her bed, narrowly missing her startled roommate's towelled head.

"And _that_, my sweet girl, is how you celebrate the end of first semester finals."

Jerry giggled. Jackie carelessly dumped herself on Jerry's bed. "Watch it, Jackie! You almost knocked over my Pink Taffy before I had a chance to change my nails from Pink Twinkle!"

Jackie kicked her shoes off her feet, rolled onto her stomach and rested her hands beneath her head. "Changing your outer appearance is usually an early sign of an inner body dysmorphic disorder," the walking-psychology journal explained.

Jerry glared down at her. "Aren't you supposed to be finished with psychology for the semester?" Jerry went back to painting her nails. "You've been Mrs. Lloyd for weeks now."

Jackie's nose crinkled. "Mrs. Lloyd?"

"Yeah… you know, Lloyd. That really old guy who thought everything was about sex."

"That's _Freud_, Jerry."

Jerry shrugged and mouthed a 'whatever' and once again returned to her feet.

At 5'3'', never out of her bathrobe, and basing her life on what Cosmo told her, Jackie had quickly claimed Jerry as her twin separated at birth. In fact, she was so smitten with her new roommate, and her vault-sized collection of beauty products, that Jackie was even willing to overlook her God-awful name and her skunk-smelling boyfriend, Johnny.

A bang at the door made Jackie jump off the bed and snatch Fluffycakes from the table as her defence.

"Don't pay any attention. It's just Mike and Jacob. They've been throwing water balloons around all morning. God, those two are such tools."

Still, Jackie stood with Fluffycakes clasped tightly against her chest until she was sure the two biggest gays in California weren't going to burst into the room at any second and hose them down.

"I don't get why everybody's acting so crazy. It's just the end of finals."

Jerry dropped her brush like Jackie had said Cheryl Ladd was _just_ an actress. "It's is more than just the end of finals, Jackie! It's Christmas break! The time for kids to go home to their families, eat all their food, take all their money and drink all their booze!" Jerry gazed up at the ceiling with wondrous eyes. "It's what baby Jesus always wanted for his tribe."

Jackie threw her head back. This girl was one of a kind.

"Oh! And the best part about going home for Christmas," Jerry continued, sitting on her knees and grinning wickedly, "is meeting up with your exes and giving them a little rockin' around the Christmas tree."

Laughing at the lewd pun one could only get from Jerry, Jackie smacked a pillow against Jerry's back and did her best to act offended. "You are crazy!"

Jerry bounced on her legs. "Oh, come on! You're telling me there's not _one_ guy who you've been itching to get back to since you moved out here?"

"Nope," Jackie replied, sticking her tongue out and moving off the bed and onto her own. Jerry's eyes widened and her mouth dropped opened so wide that Jackie was beginning to understand why this girl had no problem getting a guy to give up his seat for her.

"Oh, my God, there is!" Jerry scooted to the edge of her bed. "You may have an idea why a girl uses nail polish, but I happen to know for a fact that when a girl leaves her best friend's bed after the subject of guys comes up, she's hiding something!" Jackie shook her head and lay down on her pillow.

"You're _so_ far off."

"_I don't think so_," Jerry sing-sang. "Oh, come on, Jackie! I refuse to believe that a girl as hot as you comes with no relationship baggage. Now, spill it!"

Jackie turned her head to look at Jerry. "You're forgetting this girl comes from Wisconsin. It's not like there's a James Dean on every street corner." Jerry made a whiny noise and pouted. And again, and again, and again, and ag-

"Fine!" Jackie laughed. Jerry clumsily scurried across to Jackie's bed and sat Indian-style next to Jackie. Jackie turned sideward and rested her weight on her right arm. "There was a guy back home who I used to date. It ended badly, we didn't really speak afterwards, and I pretty much stayed away from him until I left town." Jerry nodded, urgent for more. Jackie shrugged. "And what? That was it. I came here and I haven't seen or talked to him since."

"Well… how serious were you guys?"

Jackie rolled her eyes and rolled off her side. "We weren't, which was kind of the problem."

"Why?" Jackie looked at her strangely. "I just mean, unless this guy was willing to move her with you, then wouldn't it have ended eventually anyway?" Jackie shook her head.

"No, see, I was planning to stay in Point Place. I didn't want to come here."

Jerry frowned. "You didn't want to come here?"

Jackie nodded. "But after we broke up, I just needed to get away."

"Right… So, because you broke up with one guy who you weren't serious about, you decided to move across the country where you don't know anybody and put yourself in thousands of dollars of debt?"

"It seemed like the thing to do?" Jackie weakly offered. Jerry laughed and walked over to her bed. "And for the record," Jackie started, "we were serious. I just couldn't get him to admit it."

Jerry sighed. "I know what you need to do." She stood at the foot of Jackie's bed, hands on hips and assuming her natural born role of dictator. "You need to go home, get this guy out of your system, come back here, and start the 80s with a fresh boyfriend slate."

"And if I can't?"

Jerry pointed to the refrigerator. "You know where the ice-cream is."

----------

**DECEMBER 22****ND**

**POINT PLACE, WISCONSIN**

**RADIO STATION**

"And so, my loyal listeners, I put in your hands the job of ensuring Point Place radio maintains the integrity, sophistication and creativity that I have slowly, but surely, built during my time at this station." Donna plays her bacon sound effect, "So, for the very last time, this is Hot Donna signing off."

"And this is Jackie Burkhart reminding all you boys out there that I am still on the market and am open to men of all sizes."

"Jackie!" Donna yelled, quickly unplugging the microphone.

"Oh, come on, it's your last show. It's not like they can fire you or anything," Jackie stated nonchalantly. She pulled out her nail file from her bag and settled into a chair beside Donna, filing away.

Donna was seething. "I can't believe that is how I'm gonna remember my last-" Donna spun around and grabbed the desk for support, stupefied. "Jackie! You're back!"

"Well, duh!" Jackie blew out air through her teeth. "You're gonna have to be quicker than that if you want to survive at college. Donna stood gawking at Jackie, stunned in her spot. Jackie dumped her nail file on the ground and stood up, dropping her hands in exasperation. "Am I _ever_ gonna get a hug?!

Donna finally stepped out of her daze, beamed, and enveloped her long-gone friend in a monster hug. Donna pulled away, taking the sight of Jackie in.

"What are you doing here?! I thought you said you weren't going to be able to come back!"

"I know, I wasn't planning on it." The two girls sat down. "But my roommate said I should start the 80s with no unresolved 70s drama hanging over my head."

Donna stiffened. "Hyde?"

Jackie groaned. "We can talk about him later. First, fill me in on everything I've missed."

"Alright…" Donna bit her lip, wracking her mind for some news. "Umm… oh!"

Jackie lunged forward. "What?!"

"Pricemart has three new checkout counters," Donna stated, matter-of-factly.

Jackie nodded, wide-eyed. "Wow. _Three_ whole checkout counters. Don't tell me I missed a killer sale on soap as well!"

Donna laughed. "What do you expect? It's Point Place. You have to make your own fun."

"Well, how's Eric?" Jackie was confused by the instant drop in Donna's face.

"How would I know?" she asked flatly, getting out of her seat. "The ass is probably married to some tribal whore by now."

"Huh?"

Donna cocked her head at Jackie and start advancing towards her. "Jackie… Eric and I broke up."

Jackie, who had been leaning back on her seat, slammed forward. "What?! Why?!"

Donna shrugged. "You'll have to ask him. You really didn't know?"

"No, I've only talked to Mrs. Forman a few times, and all she ever wants to talk about is which celebrities I've met." Jackie sat limply in her chair, staring into space. "I can't believe I didn't know you two broke up." She looked up at Donna. "What else don't I know?"

Donna sat back down and put her hands on her lap. "Well… I _was_ dating this other guy for a while, but it never really went anywhere."

"Rebound guy?"

Donna nodded. "You heard Kelso left, right?"

Jackie smiled. "Yeah, he called me on his first night working at the Playboy club. I swear I've never heard him so excited. How's Fez taking it?"

"Not well."

"Aww, poor Fezzie."

"Yeah. He wouldn't come out of his room for about a week. He just kept rolling around in any clothes Kelso left behind."

"That would be Fez," Jackie admitted. "What about your dad? How's he doing?"

Donna laughed, rolling her eyes. "Alright, that's enough."

"What?" Jackie asked innocently.

"The day you start genuinely caring about what my dad's is up to, is the day you stop nosing around trying to find out what _Hyde_ is up to," Donna said, saying each word with a teasing tone.

"Fine, fine, I give up trying to being a caring person!" Jackie leaned forward in her seat, suddenly excited. "So, how devastated is he?"

"Very." Jackie clapped. "You know, if you define 'devastated' as moving out of the basement, getting his own apartment, quitting Grooves to go back to the hotel, training to be a chef, and using a comb."

"I could never get him to use a comb!" Jackie cried.

"I don't know what happened to him. A few days after you left, he just started making all these changes in his life. Next thing you know, he's introducing himself as 'Steven'."

Jackie sat there perplexed, proud and offended. How could he make all these changes? What made him pull his head out of his ass? Why did he have to wait until she'd left before doing this?

Cue a lit lightbulb above her head.

"Of course! He's trying to get back at me!"

"How?" Donna asked, clueless.

"Isn't it obvious?!" Donna shook her head 'no', so Jackie sat forward to explain.

"He waited until I moved away so I would think I had been the one to do something with her life and he'd just be wasting away in the basement pining over me."

"Please…"

"And then," Jackie continued, pausing only to kick Donna's shin, "he started getting his life together so that when I did finally return, looking stressed from school and in mountains of debt, he'd look like the winner from the break-up because he has a job, money and his own place to live!" Jackie's eyes roared with fire. "Oh, he can just try and get one over on me!" she hissed.

Donna clasped her hands together. "Jackie, maybe, just _maybe_, Hyde did all this for himself; because losing you motivated him; because he wanted to make you proud; and because he wanted to show you when you came back that he had done something with his life."

"Oh, that's poo, Donna," Jackie stated dismissively. "No, Steven's up to something, I know it. And if Steven Hyde wants a fight, then he can have one."

"What are you gonna do?" Donna asked, barely caring after all the kicks and the insanity.

"I'm gonna psychoanalyse him. Oh, I'll have his insecurities pouring down his face…" she whispered, sadism dripping from her.

"Jackie, I hardly think one semester of Psych qualifies you to mentally break Hyde down."

Jackie crossed her arms and raised her eyebrows.

----------

**FORMAN KITCHEN**

Kitty sat a cup of hot chocolate in front of Donna, who was sitting at the counter, and another cup in front of Jackie, who was sitting at the table. Kitty took a seat next to Jackie and began sipping from her own cup, an action which Jackie seized upon.

"Mrs. Forman? Why do you drink so much?"

The out-of-the-blue question knocked the colour straight from Kitty's face.

"Excuse me?!"

"Hey, I'm not saying it's something to be ashamed of," Jackie said, in a tone clearly designed to make Kitty think she thought otherwise. "I know lots of menopausal women who use alcohol as an outlet for the years of neglect they suffered at the hands of one of their parents. I mean, God, can you imagine me in 50 years time when I'm your age?!" Donna fell forward onto the counter and buried her head in her hands. "Seriously, Mrs. Forman, do you think all the," Jackie leans across and sniffs Kitty's cup, "port in the world will ever make up for you never hearing those three little words you've always been so desperate to hear?"

By now, Donna was looking for some rope to hang herself from, and Jackie was batting her index finger against her lip in order to adopt a faux-pensive expression. Kitty, meanwhile, stared open-mouthed at the cup in her hand and searched for the right words. She slowly rose. "If you'll both just excuse me…" she quietly croaked.

Once she had fled from sight, Donna spun around. "What the hell was that?!"

"Me proving you wrong!" Jackie replied triumphantly. "Now you know I can break _anybody,_" she boasted, jumping to her feet.

Donna blinked in disbelief. "You made _Mrs. Forman_ feel like crap… just to make a point?"

Jackie waved her off. "Oh, please. Two bottles of Merlot from now, she'll have forgotten all about it."

The kitchen door was pushed open and Jackie did a triple-take when she saw Hyde walk in. Jackie couldn't be sure, but after they locked eyes, it looked like he had stopped breathing altogether. Or maybe that was just her.

"Jackie?"

The deer in the headlights looked to Donna for help, who begrudgingly provided it by hopping off her stool and plastering on a fake smile.

"Yeah, check it out. I guess all that Hollywood sun made her miss sub-zero home."

Hyde ignored her and took a step forward, causing Jackie to take a step back.

"Or maybe it's just in here that's sub-zero," Donna muttered to herself, trying to keep her eyes off the reunited ex-lovers.

"Jackie, what are you-"

"Your parents abandoned you!"

The room was silent as Donna and Hyde, confused by Jackie's outburst, stared at her, searching for sense. Jackie's mouth opened slightly, but only faint crackling noises came out. "Oh, you ruin everything!" she yelled, addressing Hyde, stamping her foot, and barging out of the kitchen.

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_**FEBRUARY 19**__**TH**__** 1979**_

_**PINCIOTTI LIVING ROOM**_

_For Jackie's 18__th__ birthday, Donna had been handed the task of planning a surprise party which Jackie would make all the decisions about. From the food, to the music, to the guest-list, Jackie had everything done her way and it was why she had dragged Donna into the bathroom after Steven Hyde had walked in the door._

"_Why is he here, Donna?" she hissed._

_  
"Because he wanted to come!" Donna hissed back. "He knew you were having a party, and I couldn't not at least invite him. How was I to know he'd actually say yes?"_

_Jackie smacked her hand to her forehead like Donna was the dumbest fake blonde on Earth._

"_You're supposed to know, because you're supposed he'd never pass up the chance to say how I should wish for a boyfriend I won't scare off when I'm blowing out my candles!"_

"_I think you're being a little harsh, Jackie."_

"_Of course, I'm being harsh! He's my ex, and I am supposed to complain about him to you until I end up missing him so much that you have to lock me in my room to stop me from trying to get him back!"_

_Donna put her hands up, wide-eyed. "Okay, first off," she points to her face, "if you're gonna hiss and spit, do it when I'm not wearing make-up, okay?" She held Jackie by the shoulders. "Second, if he wanted to ruin tonight for you, why would he have brought you a present that wasn't ticking?"_

_Jackie pulled back, her eyes squinted. "He brought me a present?" she asked, her voice going up at the end._

"_Maybe you should go thank him?"_

_Jackie's head bounced side to side, weighing the idea up. In the end, the lure proved too much to bear and she was no sooner prying Donna's hands off her shoulders than she was standing at the gift table, shaking the one from Hyde and thumping it like a melon._

"_This one isn't used, just so you know," a voice whispered from behind her._

_His voice, of course. Who else?_

"_Does that mean it's stolen?" she responded, a little snippier than she'd intended. She turned to face him, apologetic. "I'm sorry."_

_He grinned. "No, but I think Kelso's will be again…" He cleared his throat and leaned his arm against the wall, restricting her view to him alone. "Listen, um, I just wanted to, you know, say happy birthday and, uh, you know…" He let his shrug finish the sentence. "Donna throws a good party," he lied, not that she could blame him. Formal and decorum were never his big loves._

_Jackie sat his present down on the table and picked up her wine glass. This was only their second encounter since breaking up almost two months earlier. "How's work?"_

"_I'd probably have to show up to know. Angie takes care of everything anyway. She likes it better when she can boss everybody around, and that's never worked well on me."_

"_Really? And you were such a pushover when we were together."_

_She smiled, but he didn't. His eyes dropped and he shifted his weight off the wall to stand upright. "Actually, about that… about us…"_

_Her heart was beating in her ears after that last trail-off. The whole anxious disposition was working through her. Wide eyes, white knuckles, weak knees; the whole package._

_Hyde cleared his throat again. "I've been thinking about what happened and, maybe we could, you know, if you want… I don't know… maybe-"_

_Jackie didn't think her body would hold up if she let this conversation carry on, so she cut him off before it had a chance to. Someone was calling her name, or she needed to use the bathroom, or she just remembered something she was supposed to do. The exact excuse was uttered on some other level of consciousness she didn't know._

_After she got away from him, she scanned in a daze for an exit, but her eyes instead landed on the mirror, which gave her a wonderful view of her ex. _

_Looking at him, she saw that while sunglasses can hide a lot from you, they can't hide when someone is in pain._

---------

**DECEMBER 24****TH**** 1979**

**FORMAN LIVING ROOM**

"Christmas parties suck," Hyde declared. He and Fez were standing over by the bookcase.

Fez concurred. "Amen, brother. This hootenanny is so lame; me and my homies are gonna torch its ass!"

"What are y… give me that!" Hyde said, snatching a pocket-sized book from his hands. He read the cover. "_The American Language for Dummies_?" he asked with disdain.

"Mr. Forman gave it to me for Christmas. He said that if I'm not going to divorce his daughter, then I had better learn how to talk like an Amedican."

Hyde nodded, patting Fez on the shoulder. "It's still American, Fez."

----------

**SOME TIME LATER**

Hyde sat on the floor of the basement, his back against the front of the couch, and he was absolutely piss drunk. Who knew gin could pick up a party? He'd only had 11 shots and 6 glasses of it on top of the 23 cans of beer he's drank beforehand, and already Hyde had danced, sang, made an attempt at stand-up and gotten to first-base with the TV in the basement.

And he wasn't the only one having a good time. The normally sober Jackie and Donna must have been drinking out of the toilet seat, because they were even more wasted than him! Their rendition of Someday We'll Be Together was particularly memorable for the vomit Donna produced during the final verse, and for the four extra verses Jackie made up when she decided she didn't want to give up the spotlight.

"Helloooooooo?" an inebriated voice called down the basement steps.

"Helloooooooo?" Hyde called back, just as stupidly.

"STEVE…AH!" Jackie tumbled down the first three steps, her butt suffering the only injury. "Owww!!!"

"WHAT?!" Hyde bellowed.

"MY ASS!"

"WHAT?!"

"I BRUISED IT!"

"YOU BRUISED YOUR ASS?!" Hyde cracked up laughing. "HOW THE HELL DID YOU DO THAT?!"

"I DON'T KNOW! WHERE ARE YOU?!" Jackie looked above and below, wondering if she was imagining his voice.

"ON THE WAVES, BABY!"

"ARE YOU HIGH?" she called, trying to remember how one goes about standing up. "CUZ IF YOU ARE, GIVE ME SOME!"

Hyde shook his head, even though she couldn't see him. "NO! I'M FESTIVE!" He shut his eyes, or rather; he forgot how to keep them open. Something lifted his right arm and buried itself under it. "IS THAT YOU?...OW!"

"I'm right here, you don't have to yell," she said, now whispering. She draped her right arm across his stomach and snuggled into his side. Hyde was nearly dead to the wind when she nudged him back to consciousness. He grunted something inc…inco…damn, alcohol can impair you internal spelling!

Since talking wasn't a viable option, Jackie nudged his chin with the top of his head, and when he dropped it, she scooted up and captured his mouth. Neither had to waste time re-familiarising themselves with the other's body. This was Jackie and Hyde 101: making out on the spur of the moment and not giving a flying fuck about what was the sensible thing to do.

Jackie slid over to straddle him and had barely kissed him again when she started grinding against him. Hyde's mouth opened to moan, but Jackie simply saw that as an opportunity to bite his bottom lip and pull it against hers once more.

This kissing, and moaning, and grinding, and "Kids! Cover your eyes!" behaviour continued for a while longer until Jackie pulled away from his mouth, disappointed.

"Why isn't anything happening?" she asked impatiently. Hyde was incoherent (_that's the word_, Jackie thought!) by this point, so the two of them looked down at his crotch and Jackie made a soft fist and beat against it. "Knock, knock. Anybody home?" she whispered.

Hyde's head slumped back. "Sorry… it's the gin, babe. Not you," he struggled. Shit, he was embarrassed.

Jackie hopped off him and rested against him. "It's okay…" she said, sighing. She brought his arm back around her and lay back. That's how they sat, sleeping, for the rest of the night; lying back against the couch, and settling for plain, good-old-fashioned affection.

Unfortunately, when morning came, it left behind the fuzzy, drunken haze that made Jackie and Hyde: 101 so easy to slip back into. Instead, Jackie's stomach made a running jump to come out her throat when she realised who she was sleeping next to and how awkward it would be once he awoke and used her lap as the dumping ground for last-night's drinking. So, Jackie untangled herself, left the basement, slid a door under Donna's front door explaining why she had to leave so suddenly, and ran back to California feeling like a complete bitch for running out on him.

And yet, this Christmas was still better than last year's.

---------

**APRIL 28****TH**** 1981**

**UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, LOS ANGELES**

**JACKIE AND JERRY'S DORM ROOM**

"You're coming for a visit?!" Jackie shrieked down the phone. "Oh, my God, when?!"

"During the summer," Donna told her on the other end. "I think Eric is really just coming because he's convinced George Lucas will adopt him or something. But, Hyde and Lucy-"

"Lucy's coming?" Jackie asked, the excitement unsurprisingly drained from her voice upon the mention of Hyde's sometime-steady girlfriend.

"Oh, Jackie, please don't start with the whole Hyde thing _again_! I thought you guys were happy as friends."

"We are!" Jackie squeaked. "We're friends! _Best _friends even! In fact, we're such good friends that I bet Steven won't mind meeting my boyfriend, who isn't real," Jackie stated, only saying the "who isn't real" bit in her mind.

"Since when do you have a boyfriend?!"

"Oh, not long! About 7 seconds," she said, again not saying the last part out loud.

"Well, what's his name?"

"His name?" she squeaked again. "His name is… it's… Johnny!"

"WHAT?!" Jerry screeched.

"Donna, I have to call you back," Jackie hurried, hanging up before Donna could respond. Jackie jumped and landed on her knees in front of Jerry, who was once again, towelled, robed and painting her nails. "Please, Jerry! I just need to borrow your boyfriend for a couple of days while they're here!"

"That's… _insane_! You can't just borrow a girl's boyfriend! It's not like borrowing her husband!"

Jackie bit her lip. "I will give you every Cashmere sweater I own."

"No!"

"All my shoes!"

"No, Jackie! I love him, and I won't watch him pretend to be with someone else!"

"I'll give you my backstage passes to Donny Osmond tomorrow night!"

"Johnny's number is on the pad."

_To be continued._

----------

**A/N: **I'm worried I've angered Hyde's fan-girls by making him unable to perform, but it was just too funny an opportunity for me to pass up, and I'm sure some of you have been with a guy who got too drunk to be of any use to you.

Right, so as you can see, we're doing a little but of time-jumping in this story, but it is necessary to get the story to where I want it. The dream itself took advantage of the seeds of doubt already in Hyde's mind concerning his relationship with Jackie, and the tense atmosphere it created ended up being one of the factors which contributed to their demise. Now, they're on very different paths from the ones they took on the show after Don't Lie to Me, and the next chapter will clear up just how that happened.Just so we're all on the same page, as of the end of this chapter, Jackie's near the end of her sophomore year in college (and she was only half-way through her senior year of high school at the start!)

Please, please, _please_ review this chapter! I know it sounds desperate, but I really do care about what you think. But if you really don't want to review, then thanks for taking the time to read anyway.

Take care.


	15. Well, hello there

Chapter 15 - Well, hello there.

**A/N:** *knock knock* Anybody there? I don't know how 3 years and 8 months managed to elapse between the last chapter and this one. But when I dug out my old laptop and realised that this chapter has sat there two-thirds of the way finished for the last 2 and a half years, there was no way I could leave it there any longer. So I tried to put myself back in the frame of mind I had in 2007/2008 when I was immersed in writing this story, and I hope you all like the end result. Hopefully it does not take me another 4 years to write the next chapter, but no matter if my old readers are still out there or I am trying to lure in an entirely new audience, I am just happy to know that the Jackie and Hyde of this story aren't sitting on a hard-drive somewhere gathering dust.

Happy reading. :)

**Warning:** Mild Language.

**Disclaimer:** Own nothing.

* * *

**APRIL 30TH 1981**

**JOHNNY'S HOUSE**

Jackie and Jerry arrived at a surprisingly plush, well-to-do neighbourhood with perfectly mowed lawns as far as the eye could see. It was hardly the environment Jackie had envisioned skunk-smelling, shaggy-haired, shower-phobic Johnny Robins living in. But if this 3,000 square feet palace was where she would be bringing her friends to meet her faux boyfriend in a few months, then Jackie would just have to make do.

The girls found Johnny outside his garage, lounging on a recliner chair, wearing a tattered, black wife-beater – and not a whole lot else.

"Baby, what did I tell you about showing your balls in public?" Jerry asked sweetly, strutting over to give him a deep, open-mouthed kiss and settling herself on the edge of his chair.

Johnny thought for a moment. "It's not worth it unless there are more than five people in the street."

"Exactly," she crooned, leaning down for another kiss.

Jackie sighed at their sick, ooey-gooiness. She stood with her arms folded and her eyes shielded behind a pair of ridiculously over-sized sunglasses, a safe distance between her and Johnny's disarming odour.

Johnny seemed to notice Jackie after Jerry stopped counting his remaining teeth with her tongue. "Hey, Jackie," he grinned. "Where've you been? I was beginning to think you didn't like me."

"Wow, you were just beginning to think that? I thought you were quicker than that."

"Be nice!" Jerry ordered. "That's no way to talk to our boyfriend."

"Yeah, about this whole thing... why the hell am I a part of this?"

"Well, Johnny, you were the first guy who came to mind." Johnny smiled. "You're the only guy I know who's so retarded that he'd believe I really was his girlfriend if I said so."

Jerry sighed, standing up to walk around the chair to get her bag. "Okay, that's enough you two. Jackie, you get the scissors; I'll take care of these nails."

Groaning, Jackie stomped over to Jerry, snatched the scissors from her hands, and knelt behind Johnny. "Ugh," she said, turning her nose up. "I'm going to need sterile gloves and a gas mask to sift through this mess."

The girls commenced their male grooming and, sensing this could be a long process, began reciting all the details he would need to pull of this charade: how he and Jackie met, how he wooed her (Jackie insisted he say "wooed" when retelling this story to Donna) with musical compositions, by spelling out words of affection in the sky, and with horse-drawn carriage rides on the beach. They would have to hammer these exact details, and more, into his mind every day for the next ten weeks until Eric, Donna, Hyde and Lucy had came, seen, and left. It was doable, Jackie assured herself. A psychology major and an expert in manipulation, Jackie rationalised that this was a healthy activity which would allow Jackie to live out her life-long desire to be on the arm of the perfect man and be seen as the epitome of a woman in the eyes of those around her. And if it prevented questions being asked about her love-life before Johnny, then that was a dandy bonus. Because she didn't think the accidental slap on the ass from a 70 year old man with Parkinson's disease in line at the DMV would live up to the salacious hype she had concocted every time she returned to Point Place and was grilled about her romantic escapades.

"Jackie."

"Hmm?" Jackie murmured.

Johnny craned his neck to look down at her. "You getting anywhere with this?" he asked, noticing she wasn't cutting anymore.

"Oh yeah, yeah. Just daydreaming."

Johnny nodded. "So… what's the deal with this guy who's coming? The one you dated." Jackie glared at Jerry, lips pursed.

"You mean the guy who I told Jerry not to tell you about because when you met him, I wanted you to ask 'Who are you?' and not recognise his name when he told you, leading him to ask if I had ever mentioned him, and you responding with, 'No, Jackie never mentioned you. Were you close?' And he would be devastated and suicidal that he clearly meant so little to me that I never thought him important enough to talk about! You mean that guy, Johnny?"

"S-Should we maybe take the scissors away from her?" Johnny whispered, frozen in terror at the demon kneeling behind him.

Frowning, Jackie cut at his hair all the more forcefully. "All you're supposed to know, and all you need to know, is I don't want to be the fifth wheel when my friends arrive and so I need a guy to show off when they're around so I don't feel like a complete loser."

"Well, what about me, Jackie?" Jerry said. "I'm renting out my boyfriend here-"

"You traded him for Donny Osmond tickets!"

"-and I don't know anything really about the guy you're so eager to show him off in front of."

Jackie got off her feet, now having cut enough hair that she didn't have to crouch down to reach the last of it. "There's nothing to tell. Yes, once upon a time, there might have been, but we haven't been a couple in years. He's with someone else now, and he's happy doing what he's doing."

"Yes, but is he happy doing who he's doing?" Jerry asked.

Jackie let her arms fall to her sides, amazement lighting her face. "You're as bad as the first guy I dated, you know that?" she said, laughing.

Jerry had by this point ceased work on Johnny, choosing instead to lie back on the pavement and enjoy the sun. With her eyes closed, she spoke again; "You had a thing with this guy for years, and when it ended, you moved a billion miles away just to get away from him. Come on, Jackie." Jerry sat up, putting up a hand to block the sun. "Why did you leave Wisconsin?"

Jackie looked at Jerry, then at Johnny's hair, and quietly started brushing the stray hairs away.

* * *

**MAY 1979**

**POINT PLACE**

**JACKIE'S HOUSE**

Well there goes that plan, Jackie thought as she flopped down on her bed.

She had just returned home from an audition to host a Point Place cable access show. The job was ridiculously out of her league, but the very fact that she had been invited for a face-to-face interview filled Jackie with a refreshing feeling of hope and motivation to make 1979 a year to remember - for all the right reasons for a change. However, Jackie's performance had failed to impress the judges and she honestly couldn't blame them: she kept forgetting her lines, even after she had been forced to resort to cue cards, she kept dropping her props, and she couldn't even remember the name of the station! 'Point Place TV' - who knew that could be such a tongue-twister?

But Jackie didn't care about losing the job. Jackie didn't care about a whole lot of things these days, except for avoiding the pitying looks of her friends; and this job had been her one opportunity to prove to them all that the spoiled little girl with MIA parents and no prospects could stand on her own two feet and accomplish something on her own.

Jackie rolled around on her bed for the next few minutes, trying desperately to shake the negative thoughts out of her head, until the clatter of envelopes broke her out of her pity party and made her go downstairs to see what fresh pile of junk and bills Mr. Mailman had left for her today.

She bounded down the stairs and felt her head ache all over when she saw an envelop with the Point Place High School logo across the top.

"This can't be good", she muttered to herself. She snatched up the envelope and was pleasantly relieved to find that inside contained no disciplinary letter - or worse, a beg for charitable donations - but rather a student survey titled, "What comes next?". Jackie gave it a quick scan and realised it was one of the school's ways to figure out how many of its graduating class were going to college, had lined up internships, were actively seeking jobs, or were undecided (i.e. sitting on your ass, getting fat and growing enough body hair to clog a water dam).

The survey reminded Jackie of a half-finished application she had lying somewhere under her bed. She had started to fill it out one day in school just so she could shut up the psych-feminist guidance counsellor who kept harping on about "College! College College!". Unsurprisingly, Donna was on her Christmas Card list. But once she got home, she had fired the application under her bed out of sight, and never gave it a second thought.

Jackie was all set to mark 'Undecided' on the form when, for no specific reason other than whimsical curiosity, she decided to dust off the long-forgotten application and see exactly how far she had gotten.

Half an hour and several fruit drinks later, Jackie was sitting on the floor of her pink palace bedroom, perusing her application form and smirking at the obvious frustration with which she had filled out the first page under the annoyingly watchful eye of her guidance counsellor. But Jackie had to admit that filling her mind with thoughts of college presented her with a pleasant distraction from the rampant negativity that had been running through her mind in recent weeks. Flicking through the unfinished pages of her application, Jackie felt a momentary crash when she realised the deadline date had come and gone before Christmas (and the less Jackie thought about that time, the better). Fortunately, there was still a bit of time before the 'Late Entry' deadline would come up, and Jackie decided on a spur-of-the-moment whim to finish off the form, hunt down the weakest of her weak-willed teachers for some glowing letters of recommendation, and leave the rest up to chance.

After 3 days and a few threats of restraining orders, Jackie had her finished application all ready to go. Looking down at the finalised document, Jackie asked herself over and over, 'What am I doing? What am I doing?'. College had never EVER been an ambition of hers, and even on the remote chance that Jackie got accepted onto the reserve list and given a last-minute spot on one of her preferred courses, who was around to help her pay the tuition? Her mother? Think again. Her father? Sure, he must be crapping out gold in his jail cell. Jackie was not left with very many options, but 'To hell with it!' was her train of thought at this very moment. She may get accepted to college, she may not. She may have the money to pay the tuition, she may not.

But whatever happened, it was going to be by her own doing. Those pitying looks could go screw themselves.

* * *

**JULY 12TH 1981**

**JOHNNY'S HOUSE**

"Am I ready? How do I look?" Jackie patted down the sides of her tightly-fitted, strapless, black dress.

"Perfect. You've got a total Farrah thing going on."

"Thank you, Johnny, but I was asking for Jerry's opinion."

Johnny rolled his eyes and wandered away somewhere.

"You look beautiful, baby," Jerry assured her, coming up to hold Jackie by the shoulders. "Now, open the door before they ring that goddamm bell again."

Jackie threw her hands up. "They're from Wisconsin! Working doorbells get them excited!"

Jackie turned, grabbed the doorknob, breathed deeply, and opened the door to a soaked Eric Forman who didn't appear to have his eyes open, and who was shaking his finger and bobbing his head like one of those bobbly-head toys.

"I pray, for your sake and mine, that this is the right house – and that I am not about to get another glass of vodka and tequila in my face!" Jerry stood at Jackie's side, a hand on her hip with an unimpressed expression to match Jackie's cock-eyed one.

"If this is your ex…" Jerry seemed unable to finish her sentence. The trail-off said it all.

"No. This is my friend's ex who, if she was at all smart, would still have him as her ex," Jackie informed her. Eric's eyes lit up when he opened them.

"Hey! It's Jackie!" Eric screeched. That irritatingly nervous squeak in his voice hadn't dissipated over time.

"Eric, why are you so wet?"

"Well, it's-" Eric shook off the water from his hair. "Can I come in?"

"…Sure…," Jackie said, wiping a drop of V&T away from her eyebrow. She stepped back to allow Eric through and ducked her head out to see the others, but she figured they must have parked out of view.

"As I was saying, I went to like 30 houses looking for you guys. Thanks, Jackie, by the way, for insisting we come find you in a strange city instead of you coming to meet us at the airport." Jackie waved her hand in a 'whatever/what are you gonna do?' manner. "So, at every house I went to, I asked if there was a John here, and they all responded by throwing vodka and tequila in my face and by calling me a disgusting, common bum."

"I can see where the disgusting part came in," Jerry said, fanning the air in front of her nose.

"It was a long flight!" Eric shouted in defence, that irritating squeak still present.

"I can't believe they threw their drinks at you," Jackie marvelled.

"Don't feel bad about it. They were kind enough to only throw from one of the glasses they were holding."

Johnny walked down the hallway and grinned. "God love suburban housewives." He had returned with a towel, which he tossed to Eric. "Here, buddy. Go wash up."

Eric eyed the half-naked man who was showing the half Eric was in no way in the mood for seeing. "Uhh, thanks," he muttered, moving his eyes to the chandelier.

"Johnny! Where'd your clothes go?" Jackie exclaimed.

He frowned. "Huh?" He looked down and chuckled. "Oops."

Jackie groaned. "Johnny, we've been over this. When you go to the bathroom, you only need to unzip," she said, miming the action. "You do not need to take off your pants completely," she said, miming again. Johnny followed her movements with perplexed eyes. Actions and movements were how Jackie and Jerry had installed the idea of acceptable social behaviour into his brain, and Jackie was praying that it would all come flooding back before the Cruiser's battery died and 75% of her guests started pounding on the door.

Jerry the Saviour stepped up. "I'll take care of him," she promised pulling him away and out of sight.

Jackie looked at Eric and gritted her teeth into a smile, banging her wrists together. "So… what do you think?"

Donna, Hyde, and Lucy's entrance was a blur in Jackie's mind.

Donna was still tall, confident, and smiley – she noticed that.

Lucy was still a 5ft 7in, curvy, light brunette with Osmond-like teeth – Jackie sure as hell noticed that.

Hyde was… Hyde was Hyde in Jackie's mind. Employed? Independent? Easy on the eyes? Yes, yes, and "fuck me, yes!" But he was still the same Hyde he'd been since he was 10. The glasses, while not on his face, were clipped to the top of his t-shirt. The hair and the sideburns were still intact and proof that "Wake up, remove pillow" was a sufficient hair-care routine for some people. Even AC/DC were still gracing the front of his t-shirt.

Fortunately, Jackie needed not worry about how she looked in their eyes. Her hair had a definite Farrah thing going on; her face was smooth and flawless; her dress made accentuated everything she wanted to be seen and everything she wanted to stay hidden; and her "boyfriend" was now clothed, groomed, and scented to look the part of the perfect man.

The group, Jerry included, had gathered in Johnny's living room and were sitting in a make-shift circle: Jackie and Johnny squeezed into a fluffy armchair; Donna was sprawled out along one of the sofas, her feet on top of Eric's knees; Hyde and Lucy took the two other armchairs; and Jerry perched on an edge of the coffee table, one leg over the other and her chin in her hand as she listened to the back-and-forth exchanges concerning the sordid lives of these Point Place reunited.

"…And the next thing I knew, there was Eric, standing on the beach," Donna finished, sharing a smile with Eric.

"Aww," Jerry cooed. "You guys are such a great couple."

Jackie and Hyde sniggered quietly enough that Eric and Donna didn't notice, but loudly enough that Johnny and Lucy were staring at their respective partners with tickled faces.

Jerry turned to Jackie. "So, what about you two? You guys must have some sweet stories to share." Jackie beamed at Jerry's verbatim recital of what Jackie told her to say as a cue for the perfect romantic story.

"Oh, we have the best stories! Don't we, honey?" Jackie asked, patting Johnny's knee.

Eric bounced in his seat. "Oh! Tell them about the one where I walked in here and Johnny had his pants off!"

Jackie's gritted smile returned as five interested faces turned to look at her. She looked to Jerry for help, but she knew as soon as she did that it was a mistake. Jerry stuttered for a moment before starting:

"Johnny was just… uh, showing off his… big… dick."

You gotta love a good dead silence every once in a while. At least they aren't giving me the freaky looks anymore, Jackie numbly thought.

Jerry continued. "I mean, this is guy is h-u-n-g: HUNG! You should see Jackie trying to walk to class some mornings! It's like…" She got up and started moving around like a penguin, to the amusement of Eric, Donna, Hyde and Lucy; to the utter humiliation of Jackie who slid further and further down into her seat; and to the… well, Johnny didn't seem to notice any of this.

Donna and Lucy doubled over in laughter, while Eric and Hyde faked a few chuckles before looking at each other and dying to ask, "How much do you hate this guy?"

Jackie jumped up and dragged Jerry onto the arm of her chair. "She's kidding. This girl's a real kidder," Jackie said, emphasising the last word with a slap to Jerry's arm. "So… Hyde." Hyde's head shot up at the sound of her calling him by his last name, but his expression remained as aloof as ever. Jackie had on her face the biggest fake smile ever known to Man, but she was counting on a little bit of jetlag and a big ol' bottle of vodka from keeping Hyde from noticing. "I'm sure you must have some great stories to tell us all! And by 'us', I mean the three of us. And by 'the three of us', I mean Jerry". Jerry stopped gulping her glass of vodka long enough to give Hyde a beleaguered thumbs-up, then returned her attention to her drink.

Hyde grinned a little and replied, "There really isn't much to tell. Work's good, family's good, home is...", he let his eyes linger on Lucy for a moment, "better than ever", he finished. Not too long ago, Jackie would have felt that last remark sting like a direct insult, but tonight she could see that there was no malice behind Hyde's words. The look she had witnessed between Hyde and Lucy was one that she had never seen him give in the past and, if it was possible, that made his words sting just a tiny bit more. She let the fake smile fall away from her face, and in its place it was replaced with a soft, contemplative smile. Of course, to every other Point Place resident in the room it was simply a sign that they could exhale and relax around the reunited ex-lovers.

"Well, that's really nice to hear", she said, finally making real eye contact with Lucy. Of all the emotions Jackie had readied herself against feeling this evening, 'calm' or 'serenity' were not topping the list. But in this room of old friends and new company, ex-boyfriends and pretend partners, Jackie let all the pressure go and at long last let herself stop running from the fear of confronting where she and Hyde now stood.

To be continued...

* * *

**A/N:** So what did you think? I would love to know!

Take care.


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